'This is not a life': The tower block where they put foil behind the radiators and wear dressing gowns all day to keep warm
manchestereveningnews.co.ukSam* is 10 months old. He spends most of his days wrapped up in mittens and a woolly hat. He’s at home all day. His older sister, Natasha, is three years old.
She’s in a dressing gown. So is their mum, Jane. For them, this is life in Malus Court — the Pendleton tower block stripped of its cladding.
The energy bills the family-of-three have to pay are astronomical — and what makes it worse is the fact that their thermostat is only set to 11C. Inside the block where children stay in hats all day It’s a freezing cold house.
Jane cannot afford to put the lights on, so each room is lit dimly by an overcast winter’s afternoon and the occasional lamp. “I sit at night, scared, wondering where I am going to get the money from,” Jane says from her kitchen as Sam and Natasha play. “I cannot break into the kids’ money.
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