An elderly woman is living in squalid, dangerous conditions in a deteriorating council-owned flat. Jane is in her sixties, disabled and lives alone in her ground-floor property in Henbury.
Recently, after a fall, she lay injured on the floor at home for three days before someone noticed and alerted the emergency services. Jane’s garden is so overgrown that it constitutes a fire hazard; if a blaze broke out in the front of Jane’s property, it is very unlikely she would be able to get out via the back window.
“She’s a very friendly lady, everybody knows her,” a neighbour said. “She keeps to herself generally but is always very nice when you speak to her.”
“I think she’s a bit (too) proud to seek help.”
Her neighbour said they had contacted their housing officer about Jane’s situation at least two years ago.
The rear garden is so overgrown it represents a serious fire hazard(Image: Bristol Live)
“We’ve always said to the council, ‘what if there’s a fire’ and asked for help, but we’ve either just been told they’ll look into it or they’ve said they don’t have the capacity to come and sort out her garden,” the neighbour said.
“She can’t be living like this, it’s cruel.”
A severely overgrown back garden is not the property’s only problem. The front garden is also in a poor condition, with rotting rubbish lining the path leading to the front door. A vine growing inside the property itself is clearly visible through the front window.
Jane appears to not have had support from a housing officer for a considerable amount of time. Her property is generally in a state of disrepair, and her neighbour said the smell of faeces occasionally drifted into their home.
The neighbour said they would have helped Jane, but the condition of the home had deteriorated beyond their ability to salvage it.
Rotting rubbish lines the edge of the front garden(Image: Bristol Live)
By law, the council must ensure a property it manages is safe, healthy, and free from hazards from the beginning to the end of the tenancy. A spokesperson from Bristol City Council said: “We are aware of the tenant’s situation and are working with them to address the welfare and environmental concerns. We will continue to support the tenant to resolve these issues.”
In the summer of 2024 the council was hit with damning judgement from the Regulator of Social Housing concerning how BCC manages over 27,000 homes across the city. The judgement said its failures were impacting tenant safety and needed significant improvement.
The Green administration claims to have made ‘significant improvements’ to the city’s council housing portfolio since it came into office, including surveying thousands of homes and vastly reducing the number of outstanding electrical repairs. However, a report delivered to the Homes and Housing Delivery Committee in April this year found work still needed to be done to improve Bristol’s social housing stock.
A vine is clearly visible growing inside the property(Image: Bristol Live)
“The evidence base and data assurance in some areas are not yet sufficiently robust to demonstrate consistent improvement to a level that would support regulatory assurance,” the report said. “As a result, while progress and risk reduction can be evidenced, a number of actions require continued focus and monitoring reflecting a necessary shift from delivery to embedding and assurance.”
Speaking to Bristol Live in March, homes and housing committee chair Barry Parsons conceded the authority needed to focus on improving its existing housing supply, as well as adding to it.
“While we aim to provide council homes that meet our tenants’ needs, demand for housing remains exceptionally high which means we have to make the best use of our limited supply,” he said. “We know that more and better social rent homes are needed in Bristol and we are working hard to get new homes built and improve standards in those we already have.”
Mark Weston, who is one of the two Conservative councillors representing Henbury and Brentry, said the woman’s situation demanded answers. “It’s awful,” he said. “The housing team are meant to be doing regular audits, you have to question if they’re actually doing anything.”