{"id":641926,"date":"2023-04-26T22:05:03","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T03:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/26\/willmott-dixon-housing-block-empty-for-four-years-due-to-safety-concerns\/"},"modified":"2023-04-26T22:05:03","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T03:05:03","slug":"willmott-dixon-housing-block-empty-for-four-years-due-to-safety-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/26\/willmott-dixon-housing-block-empty-for-four-years-due-to-safety-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Willmott Dixon housing block empty for four years due to safety concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wrapper_sleeve\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"414\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2023\/04\/willmott-dixon.-Elephant-and-castle.-Google-Maps.png\"   alt=\"willmott-dixon.-Elephant-and-castle.-Google-Maps.png\">        <\/p>\n<p>Image \u00a9 2023 Google<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span>A housing scheme in Elephant &#038; Castle built by Willmott Dixon has lain derelict for over four years while waiting for cladding remediation works to start.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Residents of the scheme, which was built for housing association L&#038;Q at 26-28 Arch Street in Southwark, were forced to move out of their homes in May 2019 after the building was deemed unsafe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>However, four years after being evicted work is still needed on the building, which was built in 2011 and has an outer cladding system that includes high-pressure laminate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>L&#038;Q originally assessed in May 2019 that the works would take 18 months to complete. The scheme consists of 54 homes, of which 47 were occupied at the time it was decanted. Over 100 residents were affected in total.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The original decision to vacate the building was taken by L&#038;Q after an independent fire engineer concluded that the issues with the external wall system, including but not limited to the cladding component, meant that residents were not safe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>L&#038;Q executive group director David Lewis said: \u201cThe safety and wellbeing of our residents will always be our top priority. After identifying the need for building safety works, we took action to find alternative homes for residents living in the building.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are in negotiations with [Willmott Dixon] over a programme of works. We are sorry that this has led to delays starting works, and have offered to buy back the homes of affected leaseholders should they wish to move out permanently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are in regular communication with residents, and are grateful for their patience and understanding while we try to resolve these issues.<span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Speaking to <em><a href=\"https:\/\/southwarknews.co.uk\/news\/housing\/new-build-in-elephant-has-been-empty-for-nearly-4-years-due-to-delayed-cladding-repairs\/\">Southwark News<\/a>, <\/em>Labour councillor for Chaucer ward and cabinet member for sustainable development Helen Dennis said it was outrageous that the tenants had spent so long out of their homes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI<\/span><span>t\u2019s high time that L&#038;Q provides clarity for residents on the future of their former homes and provides assurances to the community that our affordable housing isn\u2019t going to be lost for good,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Willmott Dixon said the remedial works were a matter for L&#038;Q, and the contractor does not know why works have not started.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Related articles<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/health-and-safety\/willmott-dixon-housing-block-empty-for-four-years-due-to-safety-concerns-25-04-2023\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n <span \n                data-original-string='yEkxlGsxwZjn3WcTXhKU3w==7f4h6YLUWhfQFtsoJd+jaoHiyTmeVzjvCIY\/3nsN\/S47IM='\n                class='apbct-email-encoder'\n                title='This contact has been encoded by Anti-Spam by CleanTalk. Click to decode. To finish the decoding make sure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser.'>ti<span class=\"apbct-blur\">*******<\/span>@<span class=\"apbct-blur\">**<\/span>ap.com<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image \u00a9 2023 Google A housing scheme in Elephant &amp; Castle built by Willmott Dixon has lain derelict for over four years while waiting for cladding remediation works to start. Residents of the scheme, which was built for housing association L&amp;Q at 26-28 Arch Street in Southwark, were forced to move out of their homes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":641927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26975,102197],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-641926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dixon","8":"category-willmott"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}