Christmas trading disrupted by tower block closure

New England House in Brighton opened in 1963

Businesses in a tower block in East Sussex have said their Christmas trading has been disrupted after the city council closed the building due to fire safety risks.

New England House in Brighton was closed with immediate effect on Friday evening by Brighton & Hove City Council, which cited its risk level as “intolerable” – the highest level of fire risk for a building.

Tenant Alice Rivers-Cripps, founder of jewellery company Posh Totty Designs, said it was “cowardice” to close the building without notice over one of their busiest weekends of the year.

The council has apologised to tenants, but said the decision was “based on safety and risk to life”.

Businesses at New England House, which opened in 1963, were informed via email that the building was to be closed at 19:04 GMT on Friday.

Ms Rivers-Cripps, who has been working in the building for 15 years, said a team of 50 staff members had been due to work on site across Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

She said the closure had caused a backlog of thousands of orders.

“It felt a little underhand that it came at 19:04 on a Friday night. I don’t understand why we couldn’t have been given that information earlier,” she told BBC Radio Sussex.

“It’s an incredible place, but ultimately, it has been left to fall into disrepair.

“We could have told you 10 years ago that there were problems, but nobody came forward and helped. And then suddenly overnight, we’re shut out of our own premises.”

'Risk to life'

Jacob Taylor, deputy leader of the council, admitted the timing of the closure was a “disaster” for small businesses.

However, he said the decision that the building must close until full-time fire marshals were available on site had been made by the chief executive of the council between 15:00 and 16:00 on Friday.

“She had to make that decision based on safety and risk to life,” he said.

Mr Taylor added that an internal audit on the issue would take place.

The building was reopened on Tuesday after fire marshals were deployed.