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BBC News

3 days ago

Meghan Owen, Tarah Welsh & Naresh Puri
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One-year-old Exodus Eyob died when he fell from a seventh floor window in Leeds in 2022
Thirteen children have died in falls from windows in their rented or temporary accommodation in England since 2019, according to a study into fatalities of very young and primary-school age children.
Such deaths are "entirely preventable", says the authors, the NHS-funded National Child Mortality Database (NCMD). Landlords must prioritise fixing faulty windows and ensure appropriate locks are in place, they say.
The findings come as a second report, from England's housing watchdog, likens the scale of window safety defects in social housing to known issues with damp and mould.
The BBC has visited families living in blocks of flats in Leeds and west London who say they are "terrified" of young children falling out of "unsafe" windows.
A paediatric consultant in Manchester has also told us she has treated an "unusually high number" of children who have fallen from windows in recent months.
Most attend with "significant injuries", she says, from broken bones - including to the skull and jaw - to internal damage to organs like the liver.
The National Housing Federation, which represents England's housing associations, told us that social landlords have increased the number of checks they do to make sure buildings are "compliant with current regulations and safety requirements".
Windows in the Leeds flat where Exodus Eyob lived were not defective, ruled an inquest
The 13 children in the NCMD report were all aged under 11, and died between April 2019 and the end of May 2025. In some cases, families had reported broken windows, it says.
In four cases there were no locks or restrictors (which limit how far a window can open), in four more cases a lock or restrictor was present but broken, and in another four they were not in use or had been disabled.
One of the children who died was Exodus Eyob, who was a year old when he fell out of an open window from the seventh floor of a Leeds tower block in 2022. The restrictor on the window had been disengaged because it was a hot day.
The lawyer who represented his family at his inquest, Gareth Naylor, tells the BBC that in a "split second" of an adult leaving the room, the toddler climbed on a bed and fell.
Exodus's family had complained about how wide the windows could open, the inquest heard, but the coroner ruled the death had been "accidental" and the windows were not defective.
The family lost their child in "terrible circumstances", says Mr Naylor.
"What they ignored during [Exodus's] inquest is that these apartments are tiny, and the bed can only go under the window." If children are housed in towers, believes Mr Naylor, "a mesh or a guard" should be added for protection.
Other fatalities include five-year-old Aalim Ahmed, who fell in May 2024 from the kitchen window of a social housing flat on the 15th storey of an east London tower block - and two deaths this year of two-year-olds, one in Gloucestershire and the other in south London.
Tracey McGurk is worried about the safety of her windows when her grandchildren visit
The number of deaths in the NCMD study is "very distressing" says the social housing watchdog, the Housing Ombudsman Service.
Its own report highlights 34 cases of "severe maladministration", where complaints were dealt with badly. More than half involved children, where windows had not been repaired. The cases are not "one-offs" and landlords should urgently address safety concerns, says the report.
It is "alarming" how some window complaints have been handled by landlords and how reports of children at risk of falls are being ignored, adds housing ombudsman, Richard Blakeway.
One resident in Fulham uses duct tape to try to make their windows safer
Examples from the watchdog's report include a mother unable to close some of her windows properly for four years, a window coming loose from its frame in a baby's room, and residents using duct tape to hold windows together.
Duct tape is also how one council tenant in west London told us he had tried to make his windows safer, because he was so worried about his nine-year-old daughter. The tenant, who lives on the Lancaster Court Estate in Fulham, also says at one point, broken handles, which the council said were unfixable, meant a window was stuck open for a week during the winter.
In total, we spoke to a dozen residents on the estate, which is owned by Hammersmith and Fulham Council, and saw that visibly broken windows without handles were a widespread problem, as well as mould around window frames.
The windows are a "death trap" says Tracey McGurk, who has lived in her flat for five years and is worried for her grandchildren's safety.
The day after we contacted the council, it sent a team to survey the windows and found six urgent repairs were required.
"We're investing more than £1m every week to refurbish and repair our ageing housing stock," a spokesperson for Hammersmith and Fulham Council said, "part of a bold, three-year strategy that includes replacing every window that has reached the end of its life."
The council is "not just meeting the housing ombudsman's window safety standards, we're exceeding them," they added.
According to the ombudsman's report, some landlords are delaying temporary repairs for years because it is "most cost-effective" to wait for major works.
"Replacing windows can be complex and costly," says Richard Blakeway, "but there can be no justification for the conditions some residents have endured." Rise in hospital admissions
At Manchester Royal Infirmary, more than double the number of children attended with major trauma from a window fall between April and June this year, than in any similar period since 2020, the BBC has been told.
There have been some 14 cases this spring, "almost one a week", says Dr Noellie Mottershead, a paediatric consultant at the children's emergency department.
"It's the highest number we have seen, which is worrying us," she says, adding that the majority of patients were pre-school age.
The doctor says she cannot explain the high number of incidents, but the UK recorded its warmest spring on record.
A lot of the families said they knew the window was broken, or would not lock, and that no action had been taken despite reporting it to a landlord, says Dr Mottershead.
Pre-school children are particularly susceptible to falls because of their lack of awareness of danger - and because their bodies are top heavy - says the Child Accident Prevention Trust says.
Its advice to parents includes fitting window locks and ensuring furniture is away from windows.
Buildings with "at risk" individuals like hospitals, schools and care homes are required to fit window restrictors, but such rules do not currently apply to rented accommodation.
A government consultation on how to improve standards in both private and socially rented homes is currently taking place - and it is looking at how to ensure that all rented homes in England have child-resistant restrictors on any windows that present a fall risk.
At the Leeds estate where Exodus died, and others, we saw windows wide open on flats
The current proposals would make it possible for adults to override the restrictors to ensure fire safety, but lawyer Gareth Naylor says that's not enough. He wants restrictors installed that cannot be opened.
"If you fall out of one of those tower block windows you are going to die," he says. "It's as simple as that. Deaths will keep occurring as long as you have these window restrictors in place that can be deactivated, because it's just too easy."
We went to the estate in Leeds where Exodus died, and to several others where there have been child deaths, and saw that many windows were wide open.
One father told us he has them open because it gets "so hot" living in a tower. Another mother of two small children living on the top floor of one block said she has to be "constantly" careful on hot days.
The National Housing Federation told us it welcomed the review into requiring window restrictors on upper floors of blocks of flats.
"Housing associations are dedicated to making sure all residents are safe in their homes," said its director of policy and research, Alistair Smyth, and they "recognise the crucial importance of secure windows in ensuring children's safety in particular".
The government also plans to change current UK social housing regulations so a window has to be replaced if it has fallen into disrepair, irrespective of its age.
Under current rules, windows in flats only have to be replaced, rather than repaired, if they have fallen into a state of disrepair and are over 30 years old.
Councils need adequate and sustained funding to deliver the quality of housing that tenants rightly expect and deserve - according to the Local Government Association, which speaks for local councils. Any new requirements must be fully funded by government, a spokesperson added.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in England told us that "no child's life should be at risk because of poor quality housing, and we are determined to prevent future tragedies".