Ten-year-old flats to be demolished due to to damp, mould and fire safety problems

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

Flats overlooking a South London beauty spot that were built less than a decade ago are to be demolished because they’re too dangerous to live in.

Four blocks of 80 flats on the edge of Peckham Rye will be bulldozed and replaced with 91 flats in new buildings.

Work to finish the construction of the current apartments only finished between 2009 and 2011 but they have been plagued by damp, mould and safety problems since their completion.

Southwark council said: “The highly unusual reasons for proposing the demolition of these buildings, which are only approximately 10 years old, relate to the poor build quality and the lack of action to remedy defects since the problems were discovered.

“As well as replacing the 85 poor quality, near-uninhabitable homes with new units, the six additional units proposed would make a small contribution towards the borough’s housing needs.”

Tenants of the current flats were beset by problems due to damp and fire safety soon after moving in.

A fire warden was employed to patrol the flats 24 hours a day after it emerged the timber cladding on the outside of the building was dangerous and there was a lack of fire proofing throughout.

In 2018, the buildings’ previous owner sold the blocks and moved residents out of the flats into housing elsewhere.

Since then the apartments have mostly been mainly empty and covered in protective hoarding.

A small number of flats are rented out to people on a temporary basis.

Victoria Crosby, from Southwark council’s planning team said: “The buildings suffer from problems of water ingress, damage to the timber frames, leaking roofs, damp, poor wiring and fire safety measures and concerns with the timber cladding.

“There are some temporary occupiers to help protect the site from vandalism but the majority of homes are unoccupied because the construction faults and issues mean that the previous occupiers have been moved out.”

Councillors voted unanimously to approve the demolition and rebuild of the flats during a meeting on November 30.

A total of 22 of the 91 new flats will be available at social rent, 10 at affordable rents, while the remainder of the apartments will be at market rates.

The number of parking spaces available on site will be reduced from the current 62 to 40, with seven of the spaces reserved for people with mobility difficulties.