Southwark council spent £3m removing asbestos from one block of flats

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

An asbestos-riddled tower block on an estate has cost taxpayers almost £3million to fix.

Southwark council revealed it forked out £2,951,930 on removing the potentially dangerous material from the Abbeyfield estate in Aspinden Road, Southwark, a Freedom of Information request revealed.

The estate includes the 26-storey Maydew House, which has been largely empty since 2015. Southwark previously estimated it would cost just £641,000 to strip asbestos from homes in the tower, according to Inside Housing.

Southwark appears to have spent more than four times that amount removing the material from the entire estate during two phases of works in 2017 and 2021.

Maydew House, which contained 144 homes, has been largely empty for seven years after former residents were decanted by Southwark.

The council has previously said residents will be able to move back in by 2023 and is expected to reveal further details later this year.

Works to improve the tower block’s safety finished in June 2022 according to the same document.

Southwark is refurbishing Maydew House alongside the redevelopment of the nearby former Bede Centre site. The development will have 255 council homes once completed.

On Wednesday, Southwark Liberal Democrats revealed the Labour-controlled council has spent £111,000 on security for the empty building since October 2021.

Government figures show Southwark had around 5,000 empty homes in 2021 – the most in the capital. The council owned 1,211 of the vacant properties, according to the same figures.

Southwark council has been contacted for comment.

Pictured top: Maydew House in Rotherhithe (Picture: Google Street View)