Helen, London

19 January 2011

When I was a student in Birmingham back in the 1990s I lived in a shared flat and got the room at the back of the house, in a freezing cold uninsulated single brick extension. It had an old wooden, single glazed window and was really little more than a shed.

Every morning in the winter the window was dripping with condensation, which pooled on the windowsill. As the weather worsened, the walls of my room were constantly cold and black mould grew on the wallpaper, spreading to my bedding and turning my textbooks black.

The stress of living in a cold, mould-infested pit isn't something I would wish on anyone - I know I was lucky, and only had to put up with it for one year. Some people have no choice but to cope with poor insulation and damp every day - and see their kids grow up in unhealthy and uncomfortable conditions.