IN a crumbling estate on the outskirts of Middlesbrough, Joanne Edge’s despairing family are forced to live permanently upstairs to escape the creeping mould and damp.
It is a far cry from the hundreds of prestige homes springing up just a few miles down the road, where one of the UK’s biggest housing booms is underway.
While five-bedroomed new-builds are being thrown up on a vast construction site the size of 72 football pitches in affluent Marske-by-the-Sea, residents of downtrodden Grangetown like Joanne say they can’t escape their “hell hole” area.
And this tale of two neighbouring suburbs, they claim, illustrates the widening gap between the haves and have-nots, as well as the holes in ambitious plans to solve the UK’s housing crisis.
Both Grangetown and Marske are in Redcar and Cleveland, the local authority tasked by the new government with the biggest house building target in the UK – a staggering 1,300 per cent hike in new homes.
On one site alone 812 homes are being built in a feverish construction race, which during the summer months has sent a plume of dust over homes in the quaint seaside town Marske.
The houses are expected to sell for over £400,000 and suck in investors from the South anxious to retire to the Yorkshire coast in a spot where their private pension pots will go further.
But six miles down the road in Grangetown, near Middlesbrough, it’s a whole different story.
Single mum-of-three Joanne Edge, 34, gave The Sun a tour of her dilapidated housing association home where she and her kids, aged 12, eight and four, live permanently upstairs to escape the creeping damp in her living room and kitchen.
Joanne says: “It seems crazy that so much money is being spent on massive houses in the same council area as this. It’s only a few miles up the road but it might as well be on another world.
“Life here is about survival not about executive homes by the sea, we’re living in horrendous conditions and we’ve been left to rot.
“All three of my kids have been to the doctor with really bad chest infections caused by the damp in this house and that’s a situation that’s been going on since last October, almost a year.
“No one should have to live in conditions like this and I had to take the decision to move us all into upstairs rooms, which is where we live now.”
The family’s problems began with a leak in the bathroom, caused by old and corroded pipes, which flooded the entire house.
Last week, 11 months later, workmen came to fit new floorboards, pipes and plasterwork.
But there is still no confirmed date for repairs to the downstairs on the property.
Joanne said: “The floorboards in the bathroom were so rotten that I worried one of us would fall through them and we lived that way for months.
“The damp has caused doors to soften and break away at the bottom and there are big damp patches over all the walls. We’re living in a chaotic state.
“Instead of the Government giving the local authority targets to build thousands of fancy houses the money should be spent on those who really need it here in the areas that get forgotten.”
A near-neighbour, a young mother too afraid to give her name, says she’s been unable to escape since moving to Grangetown two years ago.
The 23-year-old said: “I lived in another part of Teesside but I had to run away with my child to escape domestic violence.
“There weren’t many options open to us because we needed to move quickly and Grangetown is where we ended up.
“The people here are nice and it’s really friendly but the place is scary and crazy things happen.
“The last straw for me was when my front window was blasted out with a shotgun, it was terrifying, especially as the mother of a young child.
“It turned out to be a mistake, I was told that they got the wrong house and meant to target someone else but it made me determined to get out.
“The problem is though that once you’re in Grangetown you can’t get out. Everyone here is tarred with the same brush and landlords don’t want to house people from here in other parts of the area.”
The gulf in fortunes within Redcar and Cleveland is all too clear to Dr Tristan Learoyd, an independent councillor representing the St Germain’s ward who has been a staunch opponent of the Marske housing scheme.
He said: “Redcar and Cleveland already has a huge divide within it, even before these new executive homes are built.
“It takes in affluent seaside towns like Saltburne and Marske which are sought-after locations on a beautiful stretch of the North Yorkshire coastline.
“These are places where people from the South want to come to because they can sell their homes in retirement, move to a very attractive part of the world for much less money and retire on the proceeds of their property sale.
“Who can blame them for that? However it does raise the question of who these homes are benefitting.
You have children aged three, four and five who will happily tell you to f*** off out of nowhere if you meet them on the street
A mum, who asked not to be named
“On the other side of the divide there are parts of the district which belong to the Middlesbrough urban area, places such as South Bank and Grangetown which are suffering deprivation
“In this council district we have 25.1 per cent of children living in poverty, which is a statistic that should concern everyone more than house building targets. The average salary for the council area is also 20 per cent lower than the national average.
“A massive building project the size of 72 football pitches which is for the most part large, expensive detached home will only widen the social inequality of the region.
“We’re seeing the gentrification of some areas and the ghettoisation of others.
“It does nothing for the poorer areas and it places a strain on the social infrastructure of the towns where the building is going on.
“It’s already very difficult to get an appointment with your GP and many have to travel to Redcar for that.
“Schools are also at capacity so where do the families of these 800-plus families send their children?
“As if all that wasn’t enough, the developers are digging a swathe through an area of genuine architectural importance.”
Redcar Archaeologist Dr Kendra Quinn applied unsuccessfully to Historic England for an order that would protect the site from development, securing thousands of signatures.
She said: “The geophysical survey showed that this could be a massive Roman village stretching the length of the field – a main street, with houses and workshops.
“There are no other Roman settlements in the immediate area, and I wanted to protect it until we could find out a bit more about it. It’s not fair on the people of Marske – this is their history.”
Back in Grangetown, jobless Harry Williams pauses to consider his response when asked what life is like there. “It’s as rough as toast,” he replies.
Harry, 28, frankly admits he’s been a drug used for the past eight years.
He said: “There’s nothing for the kids to do here when they’re growing up so it’s not surprising that a lot of them turn to drugs because it’s rife here.
“It’s a massive problem and I made some bad choices and ended up becoming a drug user myself when I was 20, it’s had a bad effect on my health and means I haven’t been able to work.
“The kind of life people lead here is bad for anyone’s mental health and I’ve lost far too many people I know to suicide because they can’t see how things are ever going to get better.
“You have to talk to people to help get you through these times but living in a place like this can be tough.
“The people here are brilliant though, it’s a place with a warm heart and where you know your mates and your neighbours will look out for you.”
Mother of six Chantelle Sargeant, 37, said: “You can’t fault the people of Grangetown, they are good people and you feel as though everyone is on the same side.
“There is a problem with knife crime and drugs, which is a worry as a mother with six kids, you are desperate for them all to stay safe.
“A couple of months ago things went a bit crazy and someone was critically injured in a stabbing not far away from our home.
“Things like that make you worry more but there is a shortage of available housing to go to. I’ve put bids on other houses so many times but I’ve always been turned down.”
Another young mum, too afraid to be identified, moved to Grangetown from the south of England.
She said: “This place is a hell hole and if I could escape I would.
“You have children aged three, four and five who will happily tell you to f*** off out of nowhere if you meet them on the street. We get threatened constantly because we’re ‘not from around here.’
“They will literally nick anything, even your fairy lights when you put them up for Christmas.
“There is constant drug dealing going on in the streets, it’s open and brazen and nobody gives a toss about the law. It’s the drug culture that feeds the crime and that means things in this place will never get any better.”
The construction giant behind the Marske development, Taylor Wimpey, said: “We take our commitment to deliver new homes in Marske-by-the-Sea seriously, which is reflected in our £2.2million contribution towards community investments.
“Of the 810 properties we have approval to build, over 120 will be much-needed affordable homes. Part of our commitment includes the setting aside of land for the development of a primary school by the local council.”
A spokesperson for Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said: “The Council have been on site and the development is being completed in accordance with the condition discharge application in relation to the dust mitigation measures. The developer has also informed us that further measures have been installed within the last week.
“The issue of pricing of the houses being built isn’t something the
local authority has any details on however the scheme will provide 15 per cent of the total number of dwellings as affordable homes as part of the S106 agreement.”
