âIt felt like squattingâ: 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 â 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.
âAll three were single parents living in social housing with no floor covering,â Pia, 55, says. âEach one told me the council had removed the previous carpets before they moved in.â
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 itâs âdisgustingâ that council and housing association properties are routinely left with partial floor coverings.
She estimates that sheâs 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 â including the provision of flooring â can have a huge impact on tenantsâ lives, says Aileen Edmunds, chief executive of Longleigh Foundation, which supports social housing tenants.
âWe hear some really shocking stories,â she says. âFor example, people are more likely to return to the perpetrators of domestic abuse if where theyâve been rehoused doesnât feel like a home. Weâve heard of children being embarrassed to bring their friends round to play.â
âJust simple things like having to wear shoes indoors and not wanting your baby to crawl on the floor. Itâs massively stigmatising to not have flooring.â
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 Piaâs extension, she continued to receive messages from people looking for flooring.
âI didnât have any more carpet but I wanted to help,â she says. âI started asking around. I asked carpet fitters for offcuts.
âThings escalated and I started collecting second-hand flooring from all over the place.
âIâve had lorry-loads of carpet from conference venues, high-end retailers have given me good quality carpet with slight defects. Iâve even had carpet left over from Warner Brothersâ film sets.â
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 motherâs house to fund the venture, too.
âI believe in what Iâm doing so Iâm happy to carry it financially for now,â she says.
Her local council, St Albans City and District Council, said: âTenants are asked to remove all flooring such as carpets before the property is handed back.â
It said that the flooring may be in a poor condition or that pets may have posed a risk of flea infestations.
âIn some instances, flooring may be gifted to the incoming tenant,â the council said.
Without carpet âit was so coldâ

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 âimmaculateâ.
âI was told Iâd be charged ÂŁ1,200 if I left the flooring behind,â she says.
Sidonyâs former landlord, Hightown housing association, says flooring in âgood conditionâ will be left in place, adding: âIf 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.â
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.
Sidonyâs new property also came without floor coverings.
âOne of my boys has kidney problems and asthma,â she says. âBecause there was no carpet it was so cold.â
âI was going further into debt to pay our energy bills to keep the children warm.â
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 âfor next to nothingâ.
âIt was such an incredible feeling,â Sidony says. âAfter he left, we just kept running up and down the stairs and taking a look at our new carpets.â
âIt felt like we were squattingâ

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.
âI use a wheelchair and the dust from the concrete left tyre tracks everywhere.
âIt was especially bad leaving the wet bathroom floor and going back into the corridor. It was cold and depressing.
âIt didnât feel like home, it felt like we were squatting⊠it was embarrassing.
âThe neighbours wanted to come round and say hello but we didnât want to let them in. Christmas that year was bleak and lonely.â
âThe neighbours told us the previous tenant was an elderly lady who kept the property in good condition â including the carpet.â
He wants the policy on social housing flooring to change, âWhy are they ripping up perfectly good carpets and putting them in landfill?â
Nealâs housing association, Orbit, said it only removes carpets as a âlast resortâ if they cannot be âcleaned or if they are damaged beyond repairâ.
âStop ripping perfectly decent flooring outâ
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 âsuitable and quality flooring throughout the whole of the homeâ in all new social housing lettings.
Other campaigners want the rest of the UK to follow suit.
âIf, as a landlord, you canât afford to put flooring in as standard practice, please just stop ripping perfectly decent flooring out,â says Aileen, the chief executive of Longleigh Foundation. âGive the next tenant a choice.â