Georgina Thompson with her son, Marcel [Georgina Thompson]

TENANTS have warned that the council’s rule of only carrying out repairs that are deemed “emergency” are leaving them without heating and mouldy walls.

During the coronavirus restrictions, Camden has whittled down the criteria for works inside council homes.

Georgina Thompson, 32, said when she had issues with a leaking downpipe outside her house, it caused mould to form in her living room.

She said Camden’s response was to tell her to wash the floors to try and get the mould off, rather than send workers to her home and fixing the pipe outside.

Her immersion water heater at Phoenix Court in Somers Town broke, but this issue was also classed as “non-essential,” leaving her without hot water for two weeks over Christmas.

The water heater has since been fixed, and a repair to the down pipe is booked for later this month, four months after being reported.

Ms Thompson, who worked as a healthcare assistant at the Royal Free before taking maternity leave when her now 10-month-old son Marcel was born, said: “I’ve had numerous repair issues and it has just been overwhelming. The response is ‘because of Covid we can’t, because of Covid we can’t’. These were outside the property, they could have just jumped over the fence and fixed it. Their criteria isn’t flexible at all, if it’s not on the list, they can’t come out and do it.”

She added: “It’s had a huge impact on my mental health, it’s the anxiety of having so many issues at the same time. I couldn’t put my son down to crawl and to play in the living room because of the mould. It ended up giving him a chest infection.”

Camden’s housing chief Councillor Meric Apak confirmed the council is only carrying out “emergency, essential and communal repairs”.

Cllr Apak said: “We know this last year has been frustrating for some residents unable to report the full range of repairs required, and we thank all our residents for their patience. Since this time, we have been advising callers that non-essential repairs would not be logged as we were unclear as to when the restrictions on these types of jobs would be lifted. We have continued though to offer advice and assistance about steps residents could take in the meantime, and in many cases, the issues raised were fully resolved.”

He added that plans were now being put in place for beyond lockdown and non-essential work would return.