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Tower block residents to be temporarily moved out over gas safety concerns
Southwark Council plans to temporarily move out residents and has immediately switched off the gas supply at the Ledbury Estate after concerns were raised about gas safety.
A council spokesperson also said they will write to the government because there could be “implications” for other tower blocks constructed in the same way that have gas supply.
The Ledbury Estate is constructed in a similar method to Ronan Point, a tower block in Newham that partially collapsed in 1968 after a gas explosion, killing four people.
Fire safety expert Arnold Tarling, housing consultant Tony Bird and architect Sam Webb had all raised concerns about the safety of the gas supply on the Ledbury Estate.
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Residents had already been offered the chance to move out of the blocks if they felt unsafe, and the council offered a £5,800 payment to help with moving costs.
After the gas safety concerns were raised the council asked Arup to also look into this. Arup today said the information the council has on the blocks may not be correct and the council has decided to immediately switch off the gas supply in response.
In a letter to residents the council said it plans to “temporarily decant the blocks over the coming weeks and months”. The council is providing temporary hot plates to residents, offering to cover any increase in electricity bills and offering free showers at a local leisure centre.
The council is in the process of buying a new build block “in the vicinity” of the Ledbuy Estate and said it will reserve 80 flats for Ledbury residents at council rents.
Stephanie Cryan, deputy leader and cabinet member for housing, said: “At every stage of this investigation, we have put residents’ safety first, and acted on the best information available. We didn’t own the blocks when they were constructed at the end of the 1960s, but all the reports we found suggested the blocks were strengthened following the Ronan Point incident in 1968, to make them safe to include a gas supply. Arup’s structural investigations suggest this strengthening may not have occurred, and we have therefore turned off the gas, until further investigations can be done.
“We are doing all we can to provide residents with alternatives while the gas is turned off, and are working up a plan to permanently replace the gas with electric ovens, boilers etc as part of the wider works, should that be necessary. We have also written to the Department for Communities and Local Government to inform them of this issue, as it may well have implications for other blocks around the country that were constructed in this way.”
