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Tallest remaining Ronan Point-style block to be demolished due to structural concerns
The tallest remaining tower block built using the same system as Ronan Point is set to be demolished due to concerns about its “long-term structural integrity”.
Leicester City Council is expected to approve proposals to knock down Goscote House on 16 April.
The 23-storey high rise was constructed in 1973 with the same Larsen-Nielsen large panel system as Ronan Point – a former tower block in east London which partially collapsed after a gas explosion in 1968, killing four people.
Landlords across the country have been uncovering safety concerns in similar blocks in the months since the Grenfell Tower fire last June.
According to an officer’s report to the council’s assistant mayor for housing, an investigation has found that the structural integrity of Goscote House’s concrete frame “cannot be guaranteed for longer than five years”.
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The council had initially planned to refurbish the block at a cost of around £6.5m, including retrofitting sprinklers.
However, it now intends to push ahead with plans to demolish the building floor by floor for around £3m, and either redevelop the site or sell it on.
Building a new tower block similar in size to Goscote House would cost around £17.3m, while valuers estimate it would fetch £1.2m on the open market in its current state or £8.35m after refurbishment.
Student accommodation developers would be the “most likely” buyers, the report said.
An examination of the building found it was “currently structurally sound” but recommended that it be inspected every five years.
And it recommended that any upgrade work “should be kept to a minimum” and that external covering should not be installed “because the structure could not cope with the additional weight”.
Goscote House is made up of 134 flats, of which 88 are tenanted, while around 30 are understood to be empty.
The block is “unpopular, difficult to let and suffers from anti-social behaviour issues”, according to the officer’s report.
Update: at 17.40pm, 06/06/18 The story was updated to make it clearer that Goscote House is the tallest remaining LPS block built using the Larsen-Nielsen method. There are other forms of LPS system.
