A mother forced to live with a faulty front door for eight months and a woman unable to use her shower since March have urged Lewisham Council to address ongoing issues with social housing disrepair.
Fiona Branson, a long-time resident of a council property in Lewisham, revealed in an interview with the BBC that she has been forced to use local swimming pool facilities to shower for the past five months, as the shower in her home remains unusable.

“I haven’t had a shower in my home since March, and it’s really horrible,” Fiona said. “I haven’t got a bath, and the shower is the only way I have of washing my whole body.”
Branson, who has lived in the property for 24 years, reported that damp and disrepair have been persistent issues since she moved in. The situation worsened when the council removed her shower, citing it as the source of the damp problem, but failed to replace the essential fixtures.
“They didn’t replace the shower tap… and the cubicle they’ve fitted, I can’t access,” she explained. Due to her disability, Branson requires a grab rail to use the shower safely, but the newly installed cubicle door prevents her from reaching it safely.
“I don’t have anywhere else where I can go and live,” she added, calling on the council to “respect” her medical needs and provide a solution that meets her requirements.
Branson’s case is not isolated. The Housing Ombudsman recently announced an investigation into Lewisham Council following “repeated failings” within its housing services. It was reported that failings were found in 90% of the cases related to damp, mould and leaks. Additionally, they reported 16 “serious failings” related to the way the council responded to housing disrepair issues in the last 12 months.
Another resident, Teigan, a mother of two, endured eight months with a front door that would not lock in the temporary accommodation provided by the council. During this period, her family experienced multiple break-ins, leaving her three-year-old son “petrified.”
“I’ve had to chase someone up the road before, when they managed to get in,” the 22-year-old mother said. “It’s terrifying.”
While waiting for the council to fix the door, Teigan installed locks on the internal doors as a precautionary measure. “I feel like I’ve failed, because I can’t provide them with the one thing I should be able to, which is a secure home,” she said.
Although the front door has now been repaired, Teigan reports that other external doors in the building remain unsecured, prompting the council to hire 24-hour security. She believes the situation is untenable and has called for her family to be relocated. “We all need to be moved. This is not a safe area for children; it’s not a safe area for anyone,” she asserted.
Simmone Ahiaku, an organiser with the London Renters Union Lewisham, highlighted that these issues are part of a much larger problem within the borough. “There are thousands of renters in the borough going through similar issues,” she said. “People are living in heaps of disrepair, loads of mould, loads of damp.“
Ahiaku stressed that many residents have repeatedly complained to the council, only to be left waiting for months without repairs, leading to further deterioration of their homes. She also pointed to a broader issue of inadequate funding for councils, which hampers their ability to provide safe and affordable housing.
Will Cooper, a representative from Lewisham Council, apologised to the affected households and acknowledged the failures. “I’m not going to pretend that the situation that those two households have been left in is acceptable,” he said. “Our borough, alongside many others in London and across the country, is facing an unprecedented housing crisis.”
The council is currently investigating the causes of these failures in an effort to prevent similar issues in the future.