Meet the woman furnishing homes for domestic abuse survivors given empty flats with no beds
A social worker turned interior designer is tackling furniture poverty by transforming the homes of social housing tenants through her charity.
Emily Wheeler, founder of Furnishing Futures, says the need for her charity is not just cosmetic design – domestic abuse survivors are often driven back to their perpetrators after being given empty social housing with no beds for their children.
When families escaping domestic violence are rehoused by their local council, properties are often stripped of all white goods, furniture, and flooring for health and safety reasons.
Having left their old homes suddenly without any of their belongings, families often end up in a flat or house with nowhere to cook or store food and no beds to sleep in, Emily Wheeler, founder of the charity Furnishing Futures, tells Sky News.
Pic: Furnishing Futures
Pic: Furnishing Futures
“There are no curtains at the windows, there’s no oven, no fridge, no washing machine,” she says. “Children are expected to sleep on concrete floors with no beds or bedding.
“Mothers may have experienced economic abuse or coercion and might not have access to their money and find themselves having to start again.
“So you can understand why some women think ‘this is actually no better for my children than going back to my previous situation’.”
Emily has been a frontline social worker in east London for more than 20 years. During a career break, during which she had her two children, she retrained as an interior designer.
When she returned to social work in 2014, she says austerity meant council budgets were being cut and previously available grants for social housing tenants were no longer funded.
“I’ve always seen furniture poverty throughout my career, but it had got worse,” she says.
“I was meeting families living in these conditions without furniture and without access to support.
“When you look at the amount of stuff councils have to spend money on just to keep people safe, furniture isn’t the priority.”
Pic: Furnishing Futures
Pic: Furnishing Futures
Pic: Furnishing Futures
Moved into empty flat two days after giving birth
Laura, not her real name, moved between different emergency accommodations while she was pregnant with her first child after being abused by her ex-partner.
She says she was offered a council flat two days after giving birth.
“When I first moved in it was all dirty, there was no furniture, no carpet, no cooker, fridge, or washing machine.
“I had to take out an emergency loan from Universal Credit to get away from my partner, so I didn’t have any money left when my baby was born. The first couple of nights I could only eat takeaway food because there was nothing to cook with.
“It had concrete floors. I’d get up in the middle of the night to make my baby a bottle and it would be freezing, so I had to put blankets all over the floor.”
Pic: Furnishing Futures
Pic: Furnishing Futures
Chief executive of the National Housing Federation Kate Henderson says: “In social housing, carpets have historically been removed as standard practice for practical reasons, to ensure hygiene between lets and to prevent any possible contamination.
“In some cases, housing associations provide new flooring as standard when a home is re-let, or in other cases they may provide decorating vouchers to new tenants, which can be used for flooring of their choice.”
According to a 2021 study by the campaign group End Furniture Poverty, only 1% of social housing properties are furnished.
Councils under ‘no legal obligation’
The Housing Act 1985 states that a local authority “may fit out, furnish and supply a house provided by them with all requisite furniture, fittings and conveniences”.
But Emily says this means there is no legal obligation to do so.
“Councils are fulfilling their duty by providing housing, so in the eyes of the law they’re not doing anything wrong.
“But having an empty shell of concrete is not a home – just because you’re not on the streets.”
Pic: Furnishing Futures
Pic: Furnishing Futures
Having seen the problem on a wider scale when she began chairing multi-agency child protection conferences, she decided to combine her skills as a designer and social worker – and create a charity to help bridge the gap.
Furnishing Futures was set up in 2019. Emily and her team refloor, paint, and furnish empty properties given to trauma and domestic abuse survivors by councils.
She uses her industry connections, which include Soho House, DFS, Dunelm, and others, to source donated furniture, and fundraises for the rest.
She believes it is the only charity of its kind in the UK.
So far they have furnished more than 80 homes across east London, and a pilot scheme with Waltham Forest council and housing association Peabody will see another three completed there.
But with thousands of families on social housing waiting lists in each of the capital’s 32 boroughs alone, she wants to expand nationally.
“The hardest thing about my job is having to say no to people because we don’t have the capacity,” she says.
“Every day we get inquiries from women, midwives, health visitors, other local authorities, domestic abuse agencies – but we’re just a small team and the demand is huge.”
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Pic: Furnishing Futures
Pic: Furnishing Futures
The charity has a 4,000-square-foot warehouse, a team of five full-time staff, and a group of regular volunteers who help with flooring, painting, and assembling furniture.
As situations are often urgent, work is usually done in just one day.
Empty homes are form of ‘revictimisation’
Jen Cirone, director of services at Solace Women’s Aid, one of the charity’s partners, says being housed in an empty home and having to start again is a form of “revictimisation”.
But she says of the charity: “It’s not only the practicalities of having a beautiful space to live in but also demonstrates that others care.
“Together, Furnishing Futures is able to complete the road to recovery that work with Solace has put them on.”
Pic: Furnishing Futures
Pic: Penny Wincer
Hannah, not her real name, is another of Emily’s clients.
She was homeless after leaving her ex-partner and given emergency accommodation a day before she was due to give birth to her first child.
“I felt extremely stressed and vulnerable,” she says. “As a victim of domestic violence and heavily pregnant, I already felt alone and unsupported.
“This empty space didn’t feel like ‘home’ and it certainly wasn’t suitable for baby.”
As a type one diabetic she also had nowhere to store her insulin injections, she adds.
“I ended up staying in hospital for some time due to an emergency C-section and during that time Emily turned my empty, scary space into a home for me and my child.”
Emily says that although COVID and the cost-of-living crisis have opened the conversation about poverty and how it affects domestic abuse survivors, the situation is “worse than ever”.
“We’re not just talking about poverty now, we’re talking about destitution,” she says.
“People need safe and comfortable homes. You won’t be able to recover from trauma, rebuild your life, and be a productive part of society if you don’t have your basic needs met.”
Pic: Furnishing Futures
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: “Domestic abuse survivors deserve a safe home and we are grateful to Furnishing Futures for the work they do to help these families rebuild their lives.
“We expect social housing providers to play their part and provide homes that are of a decent quality, if tenants are unhappy, we encourage them to speak to their landlords.
“Our Social Housing Regulation Act is also driving up standards and strengthened the role of the Ombudsman so that it is easier for tenants to raise complaints.”
UK
Egypt: Two Britons believed to be among 16 missing as tourist boat sinks after being ‘hit by large wave’
Two Britons are believed to be among more than a dozen people missing after a boat sank in the Red Sea off the Egyptian coast.
The yacht, called Sea Story, had 44 people on board, including 31 tourists of varying nationalities and 13 crew.
Authorities are searching for 16 people, including 12 foreign nationals and four Egyptians, the governor of the Red Sea region said, adding that 28 other people had been rescued.
Preliminary reports suggested a sudden large wave struck the vessel, capsizing it within about five minutes, governor Amr Hanafi said.
“Some passengers were in their cabins, which is why they were unable to escape,” he added in a statement.
Survivors rescued from the Sea Story in Marsa Alam. Pic: STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
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Passengers rescued from sunken tourist boat
The people who were rescued only suffered minor injuries such as bruises and scrapes with none needing hospital treatment.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office spokesperson said: “We are providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Egypt and are in contact with the local authorities.”
The foreign nationals aboard the 34-metre-long vessel, owned by an Egyptian national, included Americans, Belgians, British, Chinese, Finns, Germans, Irish, Poles, Slovakians, Spanish, and Swiss.
Sea Story had no technical problems, obtained all required permits before the trip, and was last checked for naval safety in March, according to officials.
The four-deck, wooden-hulled motor yacht was part of a multi-day diving trip when it went down near the coastal town of Marsa Alam following warnings about rough weather.
Officials said a distress call was received at 5.30am local time on Monday.
The boat had left Port Ghalib in Marsa Alam on Sunday and was scheduled to reach its destination of Hurghada Marina on 29 November.
The Sea Story had 44 people on board. File pic: Dive Pro Liveaboard
Some survivors had been airlifted to safety on a helicopter, officials said.
The firm that operates the yacht, Dive Pro Liveaboard in Hurghada, said it has no information on the matter.
According to its maker’s website, the Sea Story was built in 2022.
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The incident comes after the Egyptian Meteorological Authority issued a warning on Saturday about turbulence and high waves on the Red Sea.
The organisation had advised against maritime activity for Sunday and Monday.
Some tourist companies have stopped or limited operations on the Red Sea due to the potential dangers from conflicts in the region.
Davina McCall has said her short-term memory is “a bit remiss” as she recovers from brain tumour surgery.
Speaking from her bed, the visibly emotional TV presenter posted a short video updating her Instagram followers on her condition, saying it had been a “mad” time.
She expressed an “enormous heartfelt thank you” to people who had messaged her after she revealed this month she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.
Looking bright, but with a visibly bruised left eye, McCall said: “My short-term memory is a bit remiss.
“But that is something I can work on, so I’m really happy about that. I’m writing everything down, to keep myself feeling safe.”
She added: “It’s been mad, and it’s just really nice to be back home, I’m on the other side.”
In a message posted with the video, she reiterated her thanks for all the support she has received, adding: “Had a great night’s sleep in my own bed. Have a couple of sleeps during the day which keeps my brain clear… Slowly, slowly…”
When she first shared her diagnosis, she said chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.
The 57-year-old star said support from her fans had “meant the world”.
She said she was being “brilliantly looked after” by her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her stepmother, Gabby, who she calls mum.
Becoming tearful, the presenter said: “I’d quickly like to say big up the stepmums. I don’t really say thank you to Gabby enough. She’s been an amazing rock my whole life.”
McCall was estranged from her birth mother, Florence McCall, who died in 2008.
McCall with 2002 Big Brother winner Kate Lawler. Pic: Rex Features
With a catch in her voice, McCall went on: “I’ve got a massive dose of vitamin G – I’m just really grateful. I’ve always been really lucky in my life, but I feel unbelievably grateful right now. So, thanks for everything, all of you.
“I’m on the mend, I’m resting and sleeping loads and I feel really good. I’m just very lucky.”
Stars including presenter Alison Hammond, singer Craig David and radio host Zoe Ball quickly shared their delight at the positive update.
McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.
McCall with her MBE, alongside her partner Michael Douglas and her daughter Holly Robertson. Pic: PA
She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, the most recent being ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.
Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.
Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.
She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.
UK
UK weather: How long will rainy and windy conditions last – and is another storm already on the way?
Storm Bert continues to cause chaos in the UK, but just how long is heavy rain and wind expected to batter the country?
The Met Office says Storm Bert will start to “slowly pull away” from the UK on Monday, meaning an unsettled start to the day.
A yellow weather warning remains in place for northern parts of Scotland.
It warns of heavy downpours, especially over higher ground, where accumulations of 50-70mm are expected. The warning is in place until midnight.
Storm Bert latest: Follow live updates
In central Scotland, wind speeds of 50-60mph are likely, and gusts up to 70mph could be felt near the coast and on exposed bridges.
Met Office chief meteorologist Andy Page said that while the risk of snowfall had now diminished, rainfall would “affect much of the UK”.
Frequent showers are expected in Northern Ireland, northern England, Wales and the West Country, with the heaviest expected in southwestern parts of England and South Wales.
Mr Page said weather warnings “could still be amended” and possibly at short notice, and urged people to “keep up to date with the very latest forecast”.
Sky News meteorologist Christopher England warns there could be a risk of hail and thunder in northern Scotland, at the start of the week.
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Storm Bert causes flooding in Wales
As of Monday morning, there were hundreds of flood warnings and alerts in place. Three of those – two in Wales and one in England – were “severe warnings”.
A further 160 flood warnings and more than 200 flood alerts were issued by the Environment Agency in England, and eight flood warnings and 23 flood alerts in place in Wales at the time of writing.
Bert to clear UK by Tuesday
By Tuesday, Storm Bert will finally clear the UK, the Met Office said, bringing with it “quieter weather for many”.
However, parts of the country may not be without rain or wind for long, as the forecaster says strong gusts and rainfall could start again on Tuesday night and into Wednesday.
Check the forecast in your area
“How long the more settled conditions last is uncertain, with rain probably returning to westernmost areas at least by the end of the week,” the Met Office website says.
Chris England adds: “Wednesday will bring strong winds and a spell of heavy rain across the south, while the north looks mostly fine after a frosty and foggy start in places.
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Woman loses umbrella to Storm Bert
“Thursday looks cool again, but mostly fine. Friday will be milder, with outbreaks of rain likely over Ireland, Northern Ireland and north-west Scotland.”
He says going into the weekend, Saturday “looks cloudy and breezy in the north and west, with a little rain possible at times”.
When could the next named storm be?
Storm Bert was the second named storm of the season after Storm Ashley brought similar wet and windy conditions towards the end of October.
Although it cannot be known for sure when the next storm will be, the Met Office already knows it will be referred to as Storm Conall. The forecaster names storms in alphabetical order.
It says it only names a storm when it has the “potential to cause disruption or damage which could result in an amber or red warning” and according to its long range forecast, this could be as soon as next month.
It says that between 9 and 23 December, “there are signs” there will be wetter and windier interludes with a risk of snow, adding: “These conditions look more likely to dominate towards the middle of December.”
Whether this will be strong enough for a storm to be named remains unknown.
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