It was two years before workmen came to fix Susan Harris's leaking toilet, which was already on the verge of collapse.

Then, with the problem finally a bad memory, more problems emerged.

Cracks started appearing in the walls and ceilings and, even worse, the house was leaning.

Susan, 24, of Moulsecoomb Way, Brighton, said: "There is a very obvious lean to the house, which is noticeable when you look through doorways.

"The frame above the door is at a very odd angle to the floor.

"One of the bedrooms has got cracks along the ceiling and along the corners of the wall, which we have told the council about. These houses have been leaning for years but nothing gets done.

"Next door had to move out because there was a gaping hole around her stairs and I am sure there are lots of other people with the same problem."

As many council house tenants across Brighton and Hove know, Susan's problems are typical.

A damning picture of the city's council housing estates has emerged in a new report, which says thousands of council-owned properties are stuck in a time warp.

Recurring problems indicate day-to-day work is just papering over the cracks - often literally - which are beginning to show in the city's outdated housing stock.

Damp and subsidence are the most costly problems but roofs must be replaced, kitchens modernised, new windows fitted and boilers replaced before the homes are fit for 21st Century living.

The bill is astronomical, equal to £17 million every year for the next 30 years.

In Moulsecoomb, Susan's neighbours say damp, subsidence and sporadic leaks blight their lives and repairs often take an age to be completed.

Jenny Child, 51, had to spend three weeks eating microwave food and going to other people's homes to use their baths when her gas boiler packed in.

She now has a thin copper pipe, which runs from the gas flue outside her house and back in through her kitchen wall.

She said: "I couldn't believe my eyes. It looks such a mess. The contractors assured me it was safe and that it met with regulations but it looks awful."

Elsewhere in her house an electric plug socket is held together by masking tape and water refuses to run from a tap.

She said: "I don't expect the council to be responsible for every silly thing that goes wrong, just the structural problems and the main fittings. But it is a battle getting anything done."

Pensioner Margaret Field has lived in Holbrook House, Whitehawk, for more than 22 years and watched it gradually fall into a state of disrepair.

The block suffers terribly from damp, with water dripping from the walls and penetrating the litter-strewn causeways between the flats.

She said: "We have had a recurring problem with damp around the front door but the most disheartening thing is the lack of care that is taken.

"No one has painted the place in years and nobody seems to come round to clean up. The place is falling to bits."

Some people fear the latest report will provide the council with the excuse to sell off its 13,000 council homes to private housing associations.

Ruth Arundell, from campaign group Defend Council Housing, thinks the Government wants to sell off the country's council house stock, a move she believes would reduce security for tenants.

She said the repair bill figures being quoted were meaningless because they were derived from criteria which did not fit in with the Government's decent homes standard.

She said: "One of the questions being asked was "Do you want access to digital television?" which everybody will say yes to. And the cost of that has been calculated into the overall cost.

"You end up with a huge figure that gives the impression the only answer is to privatise council housing, which a lot of people do not want.

"Most people do not have significant problems and are happy with their homes. But we want the Government to allow local authorities to pay for the repairs themselves rather than feel compelled to sell them off."

Labour housing councillor Jack Hazelgrove says the Government will have to decide how to provide funds for the necessary work.

But ultimately, Brighton and Hove may well follow where others have led.

Worthing Borough Council sold its stock of 3,000 homes to Worthing Homes in 1999 after a study was carried out to decide the best way to manage its property.

The transfer enabled Worthing Homes to invest £90 million over the following five years to bring the housing stock up to scratch.

Despite the transfer, the housing register is still managed by the council.

Adur District Council commissioned an independent survey which revealed 67 per cent of its housing met the desired standards.

The authority is spending £2 million a year on repairs and maintenance and estimates, if it carries on, its housing stock will be up to the required standard by 2010.

Elsewhere, Arun councillors face a bill of £1.32million over the next 30 years.

Frank Hickson, the council's head of housing contracts, said: "Arun is in a better position than Brighton and Hove because we have less stock, just 3,500 houses."

New Downland Housing Association, which took over from Mid Sussex District Council in 1990, has about 4,100 houses.

In its last financial year it spent more than £4 million on structural repairs, and aims to increase the figure to £4.5 million this financial year.

In Eastbourne, the borough council spends about £2 million a year on responsive repairs and maintenance across the town and £5 million on capital investment, modernising homes.

Liberal Democrat councillor Robert Slater, who sits on the tenants advisory group for the authority, said: "We have a rolling programme to continually update our stock. We tend to look after our tenants here quite well."