More than 330 households evacuated from five tower blocks in Canning Town are still out of their homes, paying for hotels as well as mortgages, with no financial help and no return date.
The residents of the Caxton Works development, also known as Royal Gateway, were ordered to leave without notice after the blocks were found to be in danger of collapse. Weeks on, many are still paying daily hotel rates on top of mortgages and council tax for flats they cannot enter.
One leaseholder, Raquel Maio, said she feared the situation could destroy her life. She described a choice between renting somewhere else at excruciating prices or paying high daily hotel rates, with few options available.
Sarah Oyo, a private tenant in Sovereign Tower, said she had been refused any help to pay for emergency accommodation. Other displaced residents said that when they turned to Newham Council for help, they were told to rent emergency accommodation at the market rate.
The evacuation began on the evening of 22 October, when residents of three blocks — Centurion Tower, Sovereign Tower and St Vincent Court — received notices ordering them to leave. Letters from the management firm, Prime Property Management, said cracks and sagging had been discovered in transfer slabs underneath the blocks following structural inspections.
Following assessments on the remaining two blocks, Prince Court and Thanet Tower were evacuated on 30 October. In those two blocks, the slabs were found to be undersized and significantly overstressed, well beyond the safety margins, posing an imminent danger to life.
Prime Property Management said the development had been evacuated after expert advice and to preserve life, and that it was trying to identify those responsible and fix the buildings. Its letter to residents said they had to pay for their own emergency accommodation for the time being. In a further letter on Tuesday, the firm said it was working to establish accountability and had imposed deadlines on those involved to respond.
Newham Council said on Monday that it owned the land on the site of the five towers and had deployed health and safety inspectors and buildings experts to carry out investigations. It added that it was trying to help the most vulnerable residents, but that it did not have an automatic duty to house all displaced residents.
Developer Galliard Homes said on Monday that it was working with independent structural engineers to urgently investigate the concerns, and aimed to enable residents to return as soon as it is safe to do so. No date was given.
Twelve businesses on the ground floors of the development have also stopped trading, including a children’s nursery, Bright Sparks.
What is not yet known: when residents will be allowed back, who will ultimately pay for the emergency accommodation and repairs, or what the investigations will conclude about responsibility for the defects.
This follows the evacuation of the five tower blocks, first reported last week.
