News

A group of social housing tenants are planning to take their landlord to court, claiming that the poor condition of their properties has damaged their mental health and left them unable to work.

The tenants, who live in flats owned by London & Quadrant housing trust, claim that the landlord's failure to install sound insulation means they are disturbed by noise from their neighbours.

One of the tenants, Michele Celeste, who has lived in his conversion flat in Brixton for 15 years, said: "The noise has made me so ill that I cannot work and am on incapacity benefit."

Celeste, who is an award-winning playwright, added that he was on medication for depression and was seeing a psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital in south London.

But a spokesperson for London & Quadrant said tests done by Lambeth Council environmental health officers at Celeste's home had shown that the tenants were not suffering from excessive noise.

"In extreme cases of noise pollution L&Q carries out improvements to its homes," he added.

The government has announced plans to improve soundproofing in new or newly converted properties. More than two-thirds of all complaints received by local environmental health officers relate to domestic noise.