Tenants can remain at 'unsafe' fire-risk flats

Tenants living at Churchmans House in Ipswich can continue living in their flats while work is carried out

Residents living in an unsafe block of flats have been given temporary relief from the threat of eviction after being told they can remain while works are carried out.

Churchmans House, on Portman Road, in Ipswich was deemed to pose a "high and not tolerable" fire risk in July 2023 following an inspection.

Tenants who are based in apartments located on the upper three storeys of the building were previously told they may have to leave while repairs were carried out.

But the Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service has extended its enforcement notice until 8 January 2026 while works take place, meaning residents can, for the time being, stay.

Churchmans House was previously a cigarette factory before it was converted into housing by the same developers who built Cardinal Lofts

Chu Man, from Churchmans House Residents Management Company, told the BBC the decision to allow residents to remain would "relieve some anxiety".

"We still have a few things to iron out and still need approval from the Building Safety Regulator, but we are demonstrating work is progressing as planned," he added.

"Hopefully both the end dates for the [work] on the internal and external [parts of the building] will align so we can try and minimise the amount of disruption.

"We had a meeting and they reassured us if there was something really bad then a prohibition notice would have been raised a long time ago."

The block of flats was found to be unsafe after the Cardinal Lofts tower block, in Foundry Lane, was fully evacuated in March 2023 after a report said it was "unsafe for occupation".

Similar defects were discovered at Churchmans, with Cowan Architects finding combustible cladding and no fire barriers in the top three storeys of the building.

Its report also described the construction as "concerning", highlighted there was no fire protection around the structural steelwork and said there was a lack of cavity barriers.

Initially a 24-hour waking watch, which had been required by the fire service, was established costing £80,000, before an £75,000 alarm system was subsequently fitted.

Those responsible for the Churchmans site were also told changes to the ventilation system, installation of vents and other internals area would need to be carried out.

Then, last September, the government announced it would pay to replace dangerous cladding on the 29 flats after the building qualified under the cladding safety scheme (CSS).

"We just want to get to the point where the building is made safe and hopefully the values of the properties will go back up to near where they were before all this started," added Mr Man.