IRATE tenants on a Wellington estate have pulled together in a bid to get their landlord to sort out a widespread mould problem.

Residents in Howard Road and Penny Close claim their homes, which are owned by property management company Places for People, are being left to rot.

Paul Brooks, who lives with his family in Howard Road, said: “It’s terrible – the mould is disgusting and it’s getting worse.

“This is a widespread problem with a lot of houses on the estate, not just mine. How can it be that it is everyone’s home suffering from damp?

“The landlord says the problems are our fault because we don’t have adequate heating and that we don’t open our windows enough.

"We use the extractor fan in the kitchen when cooking or washing; we open the kitchen window and, weather permitting, we have the external door open.

“There’s only a small radiator in the kitchen and in the winter it gets very cold.”

Kelly and Chris Batstone are squeezed into their four-bedroom house with seven children, two cats and a dog.

They say their house has mould on the walls and ceilings and around window frames, and claim the damp is to blame for some of their children’s breathing problems.

A spokesman for Places for People, which is applying to build more houses on the estate, said:

“Following concerns raised by a small number of tenants, we instructed an independent surveyor to carry out inspections.

“The surveyor’s report concluded the main cause of damp and mould was a lack of ventilation and adequate heating, and not the buildings themselves.

"As a result, we carried out a number of works including upgrading radiators and fitting new extractor fans.”