{"id":990006,"date":"2026-05-28T10:43:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T10:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/990006\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T10:43:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T10:43:51","slug":"henbury-woman-living-in-squalid-dangerous-conditions-in-council-flat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/990006\/","title":{"rendered":"Henbury woman living in squalid, dangerous conditions in council flat"},"content":{"rendered":"

An elderly woman is living in squalid, dangerous conditions in a deteriorating council-owned flat<\/a>. Jane is in her sixties, disabled and lives alone in her ground-floor property in Henbury.<\/p>\n

Recently, after a fall, she lay injured on the floor at home for three days before someone noticed and alerted the emergency services. Jane\u2019s garden is so overgrown that it constitutes a fire hazard; if a blaze broke out in the front of Jane\u2019s property, it is very unlikely she would be able to get out via the back window.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a very friendly lady, everybody knows her,\u201d a neighbour said. \u201cShe keeps to herself generally but is always very nice when you speak to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she\u2019s a bit (too) proud to seek help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her neighbour said they had contacted their housing officer about Jane\u2019s situation at least two years ago.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The rear garden is so overgrown it represents a serious fire hazard(Image: Bristol Live)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always said to the council, \u2018what if there\u2019s a fire\u2019 and asked for help, but we\u2019ve either just been told they\u2019ll look into it or they\u2019ve said they don\u2019t have the capacity to come and sort out her garden,\u201d the neighbour said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe can\u2019t be living like this, it\u2019s cruel.\u201d<\/p>\n

A severely overgrown back garden is not the property\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The neighbour said they would have helped Jane, but the condition of the home had deteriorated beyond their ability to salvage it.<\/p>\n

\"Rotting<\/p>\n

Rotting rubbish lines the edge of the front garden(Image: Bristol Live)<\/p>\n

By law, the council must ensure a property it manages<\/a> is safe, healthy, and free from hazards from the beginning to the end of the tenancy. A spokesperson from Bristol City Council<\/a> said: <\/strong>“We are aware of the tenant\u2019s situation and are working with them to address the welfare and environmental concerns. We will continue to support the tenant to resolve these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Green administration claims to have made \u2018significant improvements\u2019 to the city\u2019s council housing portfolio<\/a> 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\u2019s social housing stock.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A vine is clearly visible growing inside the property(Image: Bristol Live)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d the report said. \u201cAs 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we aim to provide council homes that meet our tenants\u2019 needs, demand for housing remains exceptionally high which means we have to make the best use of our limited supply,\u201d he said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Weston, who is one of the two Conservative councillors representing Henbury and Brentry, said the woman\u2019s situation demanded answers. \u201cIt\u2019s awful,\u201d he said. \u201cThe housing team are meant to be doing regular audits, you have to question if they\u2019re actually doing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An elderly woman is living in squalid, dangerous conditions in a deteriorating council-owned flat. Jane is in her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":990007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,3893,10648,748,393,4884,10964,6334,11653,16,15],"class_list":["post-990006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bristol","tag-bristol","tag-bristol-city-council","tag-bristol-live","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-henbury","tag-housing-crisis","tag-premium","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116651793525014722","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/990007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}