Residents moved after sewage leaks into lift shaft

There have been several lift closures at Angela Court in recent years

An east London council has said it may not be able to fix a "design problem" with a block of flats it owns where the lift shafts fill up with sewage.

Gulam Hussain, Tower Hamlets Council's director of neighbourhoods and customer services, said some families in Angela Court in Burdett Road, Mile End, had to be rehomed "for near enough two weeks" while the lifts were fixed earlier this year.

Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman said residents had been "up in arms" over the breakdown.

He also said he wanted to "look into" whether the developer Canary Wharf Group might be liable for repair costs.

Tower Hamlets said there had been four lift outages at Angela Court since 2019, and that six households were temporarily rehomed during the most recent incident.

Mr Hussain, speaking at a meeting of the council's housing committee, explained that "significant investment" would be required to fix the problem.

He added: "Whether or not it's even technically feasible, that's something we would need to explore in some depth."

He told the committee: "The problems themselves aren't with the lifts. It's actually the way that the sewage system in the blocks are run, and they run within the lift shifts.

"What we find quite routinely is that the pumps that address that go out of action and that causes the lift shafts to fill up with wastewater sewage, and that in turn impacts the electrics of the lifts.

"Fundamentally the issues are with the pumps themselves, and that in our view would be a design problem that we can't necessarily easily address."

The building was sold to Tower Hamlets Council in 2019

Canary Wharf Group, which owns much of Canary Wharf, built Angela Court as affordable housing as part of its obligations under a planning agreement for a separate site.

It then sold the building to the council in 2019.

Tower Hamlets told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it was now in ongoing discussions with Canary Wharf Group about the design and repair issues.

A council spokesperson said: "We are aware of the lift outages at Angela Court and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused residents. Both lifts are now operational following interim repairs.

"We are actively progressing plans for a long-term solution to the sewage system to improve reliability and prevent future disruptions."

Canary Wharf Group declined to comment.