Croydon Council to review high rise council blocks after residents reveal unliveable conditions of some south London flats

Leah Sinclair23 March 2021

Croydon Council will undertake a review into their high rise council buildings after one of their tower blocks was dubbed by experts as the“worst housing conditions they’ve ever seen”.

Residents of the 11-storey residential tower block on Regina Road in South Norwood have been informing their landlord, Croydon Council of leaks in their flats which have now transformed their homes into dangerous and uninhabitable spaces.

Dame Judith Hackitt, former Chair of the UK Health and Safety Executive said there “isn’t really any possible way that those properties are fit for human habitation”

Mould on the ceilings of Ms Hewitt’s flat
ITV News

One of the residents, Fransoy Hewitt, spoke to ITV News Correspondent Daniel Hewitt about her ongoing battle to get help from the council.

Ms Hewitt, who lives on the ground floor with her two sons, aged five and seven, started noticing damp and mould 18 months ago.

She showed ITV evidence of contacting the council in October 2019 to inform them of a leak in the flat and says she continued to reach out to them throughout 2020.

Despite visits from the repair team, the mould and damp have got worse.

She told ITV News she has contacted the council at least 20 times altogether.

The mother-of-two says the way she’s been treated "makes me feel like I am not even human".

"I’m not coping. There is only so much I can get angry, and pull my hair out - I just feel like I’m going to kill myself if I continue like that," she says.

Fransoy Hewitt
ITV News

Ms Hewitt says she’s had to unplug her fridge to prevent electrocution for more than three months.

The floors of the flat are now soaking wet and black mould has taken over the kitchen, making it unusable.

She has no light in the bathroom, her sofa has been destroyed along with many of her children’s belongings. The only room in the flat that is undamaged is the small bedroom where the family of three cook, eat, play and sleep in.

Ms Hewitt says that her children often ask if they are going to move or if they are going to be homeless - to which she replies: “I don’t know if anyone is going to fix it and maybe we will be homeless”.

“Everybody I turn to, no one helps,” she says.

Another resident in the tower block, Leroy McNally, is living in similar conditions.

Mr McNally has had to place four buckets in his living room to collect the water dripping from above.

“Every night I go to bed at twelve, and I wake up at six (am) just to empty the buckets," he says.

In Mr McNally flat, the carpets are soaked through and black mould can be seen everywhere.

Since 2020, Mr McNally says he has called Croydon Council at least 10 times since September. Like Ms Hewitt, repair teams have visited but his flat remains in dire conditions.

Leroy McNally
ITV News

When asked why he thinks he’s not been listened to, he believes discrimination may be a contributing factor.

"I got a feeling, when I used to ring up before, I’d say ‘my name’s Leroy, Leroy McNally’ and I got a feeling that puts them on the off-foot because straight away they’re (thinking) ‘Leroy - black person, we don’t want to deal with this person’. I got a feeling it’s something like that.

"Eventually I started saying my name is Mr McNally - I wouldn’t say Leroy - and I got a better response."

A spokesperson for Croydon Council told the Standard: “We are very sorry that our residents have not had the proper level of care and the standards at these homes are absolutely not what we would want or expect for any of our tenants.”

“We will be undertaking a review of all our high-rise council blocks as a matter of urgency and holding an independent inquiry to ensure this never happens again.”

The spokesperson added that they have since moved Mr McNally and Ms Hewitt out of their flats.

Commenting on Mr McNally’s claims that he may have been discriminated against, the spokesperson said they “will be reaching out to him as soon as possible so we can fully investigate his complaints as a matter of urgency.”

“We expect our council staff to treat everyone with professionalism and respect at all times.”

The footage obtained by ITV was shared with Dame Judith Hackitt, former Chair of the UK Health and Safety Executive who said it was the worst housing conditions she has ever seen.

Dame Judith, who led the government’s independent inquiry into building safety and regulation following the Grenfell Tower fire, said: "When I talked to residents in the wake of Grenfell, when I talked to residents in other tower blocks as part of my review, one of the common complaints from residents was ‘nobody listens to us - we express our concerns and nobody acts on it.’

Leroy McNally’s bedroom
ITV News

"That, I’m afraid, is typical. That is one of the fundamental cultural issues we’ve got to get over - where someone actually feels responsible and takes responsibility for fixing things.”

Shelter’s Chief Executive Polly Neate told the broadcaster: "I can’t imagine the stress, and people’s housing situation, when it’s insecure or unsafe for any reason, you can’t overstate the level of stress and lack of mental wellbeing it causes for parents and especially for children."

She added that there “isn’t really any possible way that those properties are fit for human habitation”, and said there was “absolutely no excuse for it at all."

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