Croydon flat residents still waiting for cladding to be removed from their homes

Residents at the Longitude, Latitude and Altitude blocks off Barclay Road, Croydon are still waiting for cladding to be removed from their homes and for internal work to be carried out to stop potential fires from spreading between flats.

It’s understood that in London there are 1,100 buildings over 11 metres which still have serious fire safety issues.

Latitude (photo: Darren Pepe)

The government last month passed its Building Safety Bill in a bid to make new builds safer.

A 41-year-old man, who asked not to be named, owns a flat in the Latitude block, but now lives in a larger flat in Longitude after having a child and needing an extra bedroom. 

He said: “They are still trying to figure out the cost – there is a huge tussle going on between the freehold landlord and owners as to who pays for that.”

He said without this work, residents can’t get the necessary certificate to sell or re-mortgage.

The dad added: “I feel locked in. I can’t buy a two-bedroom flat without refinancing. At times they were showing my property was valued at zero.”

Some residents fear for their safety as the cladding issue remains unresolved. 

Latitude (photo: Darren Pepe)

Raheel lives in a two-bedroom flat with his wife and two children and has lived in other flats in the development over the past eight years.

He rents a flat which he negotiated down from £1,500 after arguing the property was unsafe.

The 38-year-old said when he lived in the tallest block, Altitude, he could hear the building creaking in the wind.

He said: “The building is an oval shape and whenever the wind comes I could hear this creaking sound.

"I will stay in the flat for the location and they are a good size compared to other flats in Croydon.”

A woman who didn’t wished to be named and rents a flat in the block from a family member said the whole situation has been a “nightmare”.

She said: “It sucks, you can’t sell your flat, there is no help and feels like there is no hope.

"It is Catch 22.

"We are stuck in the middle between the freeholder and government policy and nobody is moving this forward.”

And she fears for the safety of herself and her neighbours if a fire were to happen.

She said: “We are told the fire doors will save us but not if the building goes up in flames.”

A 27-year-old woman who bought a two-bedroom flat with her twin sister in one of the Latitude blocks four years ago has seen its price plummet. 

She said the pair bought the flat for £375,000 – but it is now worth around £300,000.

Labour MP for Croydon Central Sarah Jones, said there are five more flats in the borough with unsafe cladding.

In Parliament earlier this year, she said: “I have many tall buildings in Croydon Central and the complexity of some of their issues and the cost of what they bear are very significant. 

"Longitude and Altitude blocks in my constituency have to pay for compartmentalisation.”

A spokesperson for the freeholder Radcliffe Investment Properties Limited said: “We sympathise with the residents of Altitude, Longitude and Latitude, all of whom purchased their properties in good faith.

"The passing of the Building Safety Act has meant that those properties that had been accepted into the Government’s Building Safety Fund (BSF) – including Altitude and Latitude – now face potential delays due to the conflict between the terms of the BSF and the Building Safety Act.

“The BSF fails to provide funding to remediate cladding on buildings under 18m, like Longitude, although the Government has indicated that “orphan buildings” (those buildings where there is no developer) may be remediated using funding from a £3bn developer levy, details of which are not clear at this stage.

“We want remediation to start as soon as possible and are engaging with DLUHC to resolve and address the incompatibilities of the Building Safety Act with the Building Safety Fund so that work can proceed without further unnecessary delay.”