Tenants living in blocks plagued with damp and mould face months of uncertainty after a council said it was considering demolishing them as fixing the issues was not “best value for money”.
Residents in the Shires estate, Edmonton, north London, have been given no further information about when works to decommission the estate will begin and are uncertain about plans for Enfield council to rehouse them.
A tenant, who declined to give her name, described living in a flat covered in mould. “I have to clean the mould in the flat every four to five days. If I leave it turns things completely black. When I tell the council they say it’s because of my ‘living conditions’,” she said. The council said they had set up a taskforce to address damp and mould in the block.
The tenant said her flat had had a leaking soil pipe, which carries waste from the toilet, for eight years. “In the summer when you walk into the flat you can smell the sewage,” she said.
She said the pipes in the water tank cupboard have leaked three times since January. In a video seen by the Guardian, water can be seen gushing from the pipes.
While some residents have been offered properties, others have not. The tenant said she had been offered a property in another estate, but alleges a council officer told her they were moving from “one shithole to another”. The council said it would investigate the matter if the name of the officer were passed to them.
The Shires estate, which comprises Cheshire House and Shropshire House, was found to be at risk of collapse in the event of a gas explosion in a 2021 report commissioned by the council. Gas boilers have since been replaced with electric ones.
According to Enfield council, repairing the building would cost £53m. It said: “We need to consider whether carrying out extensive and costly repair work to maintain ageing 1960s housing blocks is best value for money.”
The decision to “decommission” the estate was seemingly confirmed by councillors, including the deputy leader, in a combative emergency council meeting held last month. However, the council say a final decision will hopefully be made by the end of April.
Councillor George Savva, the cabinet member for social housing, commended the council’s handling of the estate, which made news last December for providing outdoor showers during a gas shutoff in a cold snap, saying “not a single life was lost”. When opposition councillors posed a question about mushrooms growing in people’s flats, a Labour councillor said: “He’s had some of the mushrooms.”
Bernadette Beaupierre, 61, who is moving out of the estate after 34 years, attended the meeting. “All I wanted was for Enfield council to admit they’d done wrong but they didn’t,” she said.
In a scathing statement, Kate Osamor, MP for Edmonton, said: “When I first met residents on the Shires estate in 2015, I was shocked at the conditions they were living in. In the following eight years, I’ve repeatedly pressed the council to take action and communicate with residents. Their response hasn’t been good enough.
“My constituents have been let down and the council needs to start taking responsibility.
“Unfortunately, the behaviour of councillors at a recent council meeting on 23 February gave the impression that the council’s first priority is to defend its reputation, rather than residents. Hearing councillors laugh and dismiss concerns about their response shows the council still isn’t listening to residents.”
A spokesperson for Enfield council said: “The safety and comfort of our residents is our absolute priority. We appreciate that the residents have been going through a period of disruption and our officers are on hand to provide as much information and guidance as possible as we move forward on the future of this estate …
“The council has set up a taskforce to oversee the organisational-wide response to damp and mould, ensuring we take a fully joined-up approach across council services. We have strengthened our reactive and proactive response to damp and mould issues, hired additional staff and have a robust review and action plan in place.”
Responding to criticism of the council meeting, the local authority said: “In the context of a robust discussion on the situation at the Shires before Christmas at which comparisons were made with the tragic deaths at Grenfell, the cabinet member directly addressed fire safety concerns and emphasised that these comparisons with Grenfell were inappropriate given that Enfield council had taken action to prioritise the health and safety of our residents at every stage.”
The council added that “a significant erosion of funding” for council housing had affected its ability to invest in its stock. “Delivering the standard of homes required is about national policy supporting what is needed by cash strapped councils to deliver for residents on the ground,” it said.
