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Families left waiting seven months for repairs to damaged flats

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Burned out: more than six months after the fire at South Bank flats, no repairs have been carried out

While Croydon Council pays a private developer £20million to buy a residential block in Broad Green, in the middle of a housing crisis it is failing to maintain its existing housing stock.

A council-owned block in Upper Norwood has been standing empty for more than six months, while no repairs have been carried out following a fire there last June.

Ward councillor Claire Bonham has called for action from Mayor Jason Perry over the block at South Bank, on Grange Road.

Eight families that lived in the block have had to be decanted and placed in expensive temporary accommodation for more than six months, with no indication from Croydon Council when they might be allowed back to their homes.

Croydon has almost 8,000 households waiting for social housing, with only 800 lettings available each year. Meanwhile, these eight properties stand boarded up and uninhabitable.

LibDem councillor Bonham said: “I am concerned at the lack of action from Croydon Council in getting this block of flats back into use.

Questions unanswered: Cllr Claire Bonham

“Tenants, residents and people living nearby deserve answers from the council and assurances that plans are in place to get people back into their homes.”

The councillor says that last month she asked Lynne Hale, the cabinet member for housing and Perry’s deputy Mayor, about the plans for the block, and she followed that up more recently with a formal enquiry to the council’s housing department. Bonham has not had a reply to either.

“Croydon Council spends millions of pounds each month on housing families in temporary accommodation,” Bonham said, “so it’s imperative that empty council properties are brought back into use as quickly as possible”

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