The woman helping council tenants carpet their homes

Sidony West recently received carpet from Pia after she and her three children lived with bare floorboards for more than two years.

In 2014, Sidony was offered a social housing flat in Bushey, Hertfordshire, having escaped a violent relationship. The flat had no floor coverings and she took out a loan to install linoleum throughout.

But when she moved to a housing association property in Borehamwood in 2022, Sidony was made to dispose of the lino, which she said was “immaculate”.

“I was told I’d be charged £1,200 if I left the flooring behind,” she says.

Sidony’s former landlord, Hightown housing association, says flooring in “good condition” will be left in place, adding: “If it is in a poor state, and in line with sector practice, we will remove it because of hygiene and contamination risks for the new resident.”

However, Sidony says her flooring was never inspected, and has shown the BBC her end of tenancy agreement which instructed her to remove carpets, underlay, gripper rods and laminate flooring.

Sidony’s new property also came without floor coverings.

“One of my boys has kidney problems and asthma,” she says. “Because there was no carpet it was so cold.”

“I was going further into debt to pay our energy bills to keep the children warm.”

Earlier this year, Sidony managed to get she carpet for the three bedrooms, hallway and stairs through Pia. She says Pia shared contact details for a carpet fitter who laid them “for next to nothing”.

“It was such an incredible feeling,” Sidony says. “After he left, we just kept running up and down the stairs and taking a look at our new carpets.”