āIt felt like squattingā: The people forced to live without flooring

When Pia Honey had her house extended in 2021, the builders planned to put her old flooring into a skip ā much to her surprise.
After all, it was in perfectly good condition.
Instead, Pia listed the carpet on Facebook. Three families each took a share.
āAll three were single parents living in social housing with no floor covering,ā Pia, 55, says. āEach one told me the council had removed the previous carpets before they moved in.ā
It was this that ultimately led to the creation of her community interest company No Floor No More, which provides second-hand carpets to social housing tenants who would otherwise have to make do with bare floors.
Pia, who lives in St Albans, says itās ādisgustingā that council and housing association properties are routinely left with partial floor coverings.
She estimates that sheās provided flooring to about 1,400 properties, and is campaigning for social housing to come with flooring as standard.
A recent survey suggests three quarters of new social housing tenancies come with no, or only partial, flooring coverings.
The quality of social housing ā including the provision of flooring ā can have a huge impact on tenantsā lives, says Aileen Edmunds, chief executive of Longleigh Foundation, which supports social housing tenants.
āWe hear some really shocking stories,ā she says. āFor example, people are more likely to return to the perpetrators of domestic abuse if where theyāve been rehoused doesnāt feel like a home. Weāve heard of children being embarrassed to bring their friends round to play.ā
āJust simple things like having to wear shoes indoors and not wanting your baby to crawl on the floor. Itās massively stigmatising to not have flooring.ā
The National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations, says that in social housing carpets have historically been removed between lets as standard practice, for practical and hygienic reasons.
In some cases, housing associations provide new flooring as standard when a home is re-let, or give decorating vouchers to new tenants, it said.
Carpets from high-end retailers and film sets

After Piaās extension, she continued to receive messages from people looking for flooring.
āI didnāt have any more carpet but I wanted to help,ā she says. āI started asking around. I asked carpet fitters for offcuts.
āThings escalated and I started collecting second-hand flooring from all over the place.
āIāve had lorry-loads of carpet from conference venues, high-end retailers have given me good quality carpet with slight defects. Iāve even had carpet left over from Warner Brothersā film sets.ā
Pia splits her week between her part-time beauty therapy job, caring for her grandchildren, and collecting and redistributing large quantities of carpet and lino.
She passes on the carpets at dramatically knocked-down prices, with the money going back into No Floor No More to cover some of the costs. She uses money from the sale of her late motherās house to fund the venture, too.
āI believe in what Iām doing so Iām happy to carry it financially for now,ā she says.
Her local council, St Albans City and District Council, said: āTenants are asked to remove all flooring such as carpets before the property is handed back.ā
It said that the flooring may be in a poor condition or that pets may have posed a risk of flea infestations.
āIn some instances, flooring may be gifted to the incoming tenant,ā the council said.
Without carpet āit was so coldā

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 āimmaculateā.
āI was told Iād be charged Ā£1,200 if I left the flooring behind,ā she says.
Sidonyās former landlord, Hightown housing association, says flooring in āgood conditionā will be left in place, adding: āIf 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.ā
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.
Sidonyās new property also came without floor coverings.
āOne of my boys has kidney problems and asthma,ā she says. āBecause there was no carpet it was so cold.ā
āI was going further into debt to pay our energy bills to keep the children warm.ā
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 āfor next to nothingā.
āIt was such an incredible feeling,ā Sidony says. āAfter he left, we just kept running up and down the stairs and taking a look at our new carpets.ā
āIt felt like we were squattingā

Neal Wylde, from Beeston Regis in Norfolk, is another social housing tenant who is all too familiar with a lack of carpet.
He moved into his property 13 years ago and was met with dusty concrete floors.
āI use a wheelchair and the dust from the concrete left tyre tracks everywhere.
āIt was especially bad leaving the wet bathroom floor and going back into the corridor. It was cold and depressing.
āIt didnāt feel like home, it felt like we were squattingā¦ it was embarrassing.
āThe neighbours wanted to come round and say hello but we didnāt want to let them in. Christmas that year was bleak and lonely.ā
āThe neighbours told us the previous tenant was an elderly lady who kept the property in good condition ā including the carpet.ā
He wants the policy on social housing flooring to change, āWhy are they ripping up perfectly good carpets and putting them in landfill?ā
Nealās housing association, Orbit, said it only removes carpets as a ālast resortā if they cannot be ācleaned or if they are damaged beyond repairā.
āStop ripping perfectly decent flooring outā
In Wales, there has been change at a national level following a campaign from the tenant engagement group TPAS Cymru.
From April 2024, all social landlords in Wales must provide āsuitable and quality flooring throughout the whole of the homeā in all new social housing lettings.
Other campaigners want the rest of the UK to follow suit.
āIf, as a landlord, you canāt afford to put flooring in as standard practice, please just stop ripping perfectly decent flooring out,ā says Aileen, the chief executive of Longleigh Foundation. āGive the next tenant a choice.ā