‘It keeps coming back’: Rochdale estate still plagued by mould that killed toddler

‘Every week we clean and clean and clean but it doesn’t help. You still breathe the mould,’ says Freehold resident Arunas Jankunas. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

A week after decorating a bedroom in his family’s flat, the wallpaper is peeling and damp is visible through the new paint. “I’m throwing money away,” says Arunas Yankunas, exasperated.

In every room – and on doors and clothes – there are traces of mould. Attempts to paint over it do not work. Yankunas had to pull all the carpets up because they were black, and is starting to put laminate flooring down. They are not huge, ugly swathes of mould, but it is enough to be worried and he is at his wit’s end.