Gleadless Valley residents still in seven-year refurbishment limbo

Residents on the Gleadless Valley estate say they have been left in limbo

Residents of one of Sheffield's biggest housing estates are still waiting for a £90m regeneration scheme to start seven years after it was announced.

Some people in Gleadless Valley say their homes are "falling apart" and repairs are not being carried out.

The plan was first set out in 2017 but "not a single spade has hit the ground" so far, said one resident.

Sheffield City Council said Covid and "changes in administration" were to blame for the delay.

After the initial plans were announced a masterplan was published in 2022, but a spokesperson for the Gleadless Valley Residents and Tenants Association said: "We are now in 2024 and nothing has happened."

They added: "It's frustrating for the people living on the estate who are living in homes which they have been told are going to be demolished."

Bin bags and broken glass litter parts of the estate

Built in 1955, Gleadless Valley houses roughly 10,000 residents. It consists of maisonettes, homes and flats built into Sheffield's famous hillsides.

The council said work will now start next month on demolishing a former care home and improving communal spaces, but it will be longer before new homes are built.

Residents told the BBC they do not feel pride in the area anymore.

One resident of five years, who did not want to be named, said: "My house is falling apart.

"My door has been loose for over a year now. The side of the door flew off in bad winds.

"I have spent so much money on gas."

The estate has a population of about 10,000 residents

They added: "I have rang them all the time and they don't come and sort it.

"All the neighbours feel the same, we just want to know when we can move out and get a date."

Sheffield Heeley's Labour MP Louise Haigh said she has spoken to many residents who are fed up.

"They are not having the repairs they need on their homes, they don't even know if they should redecorate because they don't know if they are going to be moving," she said.

"It's just left them in a really unacceptable state and I don't know what the council has been doing in that time."

Ms Haigh raised her "serious concerns" about the delay in a letter to the chair of the council's housing committee, Douglas Johnson, and the three Green councillors who represent Gleadless Valley.

In it she said residents were "rightly worried if this plan will ever be delivered", adding that they had been left in a state of "limbo".

Sheffield Council said some work will begin next month

Mr Johnson told the BBC work would start soon on improving the communal spaces.

He said: "The houses aren't going to spring up overnight, it is going to be a number of years before houses actually get built and are available for letting."