Sarah is due to give birth just before Christmas, but unless she can move house soon, the baby may not be coming home with her. “Our social worker has said the flat is not fit for a baby, and that the midwives are not to discharge us if we’re coming back here,” she says, showing the Guardian around the one-bed flat she shares with her partner, David.
It is not hard to see why the social worker is concerned. Even before the front door opens, the smell of damp is overwhelming. In the couple’s Harry Potter-themed bedroom, the walls are wet to touch, with water running down the inside as two dehumidifiers hum away in the corner. They can’t even sleep in here any more after spores developed on their fabric headboard, and they now bed down on a mattress in the living room. Not ideal when you are eight months pregnant.
