EXCLUSIVE: More problems for residents who have shared-ownership in homes built by the council’s omnishambles of a development company.
By housing correspondent, BARRATT HOLMES
Eight flats built by Brick by Brick, Croydon Council’s useless housing company that helped to bankrupt the borough, have been served with enforcement notices by the London Fire Brigade for failing to meet safety standards.
The flats, over four floors of Heathfield Gardens on Coombe Road in South Croydon, have been failed by the LFB on four areas of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, including “failure in the effective management of the preventive and protective measures” and “failure to ensure that the premises and any facilities, equipment and devices are maintained in an efficient state, in effective working order and in good repair”.
The block’s freeholders and managers have until September 1 to comply.
Brick by Brick is now a zombie housing company, its operations being wound down.
The fire safety enforcement order is just the latest piece of additional turmoil for the residents in Brick by Brick properties, many of whom have experienced a catalogue of serious snagging issues as the council-owned company prepares to be closed and hand responsibilities for its sites over to various managing agents.
Inside Croydon has reported before on the litany of issues residents have experienced since purchasing, or part-purchasing their properties, from the council-owned developer. These include defects in the build, routine maintenance issues that have not been addressed and solar panels that have not provided any benefit to residents.
Slow sellers: BxB’s Heathfield Gardens was completed in 2020, but took years for all flats to be sold due to problems over shared ownership schemes
This website has also been aware of concerns over fire risk assessments on some BxB-built homes which date back to 2022.
Two-bedroomed flats in Heathfield Gardens, designed by flashy architects Mikhail Riches, were marketed at a chunky £440,000 once the build was completed in 2020.
But several flats in the development remained unsold for three years, a result of continuing problems encountered by Brick by Brick over shared ownership sales.
Heathfield Gardens was built on one of the controversial in-fill sites, using supposedly “surplus” council-owned land close to existing flats, which took away existing residents’ garages and green space to provide land for development.
Unregistered provider: BxB CEO Colm Lacey
Colm Lacey was the former council executive who was placed in charge of the council-owned developer. Lacey never managed to get BxB registered as a recognised provider of shared ownership homes, even though this was how almost half of all the company’s new builds were to be sold.
In 2020, Brick by Brick was forced to recruit the help of So Resi, a company that is registered to sell shared ownership homes, to handle sales of homes intended for shared-ownership.
This “oversight” was not the only instance of Brick by Brick under Colm Lacey failing to comply with the regulatory system.
As builders, Brick by Brick ought to be answerable to the Housing Ombudsman for any failings in its new-builds. But as residents have discovered to their horror, Brick by Brick also failed to get itself signed up as a member of the Ombudsman scheme. That has left residents no option short of legal action – potentially against a council-owned, insolvent company which may soon not exist at all.
Home-owners and leaseholders now can’t even get resolution to their issues by going to Brick by Brick’s shareholder, Croydon Council. A meeting last year with Mayor Jason Perry and involving residents living in Brick by Brick developments provided little in the way of peace of mind, and certainly no resolution.
Residents in some properties were even asked to cough up for new CCTV cameras, because the anti-crime equipment has been… nicked. And no one, at Brick by Brick or the council, managed to submit an prompt insurance claim, or even file a crime report with the police.
Fire problems: the LFB safety enforcement order was served on Heathfield Gardens’ freeholders in May. They have until September 1 to comply
The LFB enforcement notice for flats 87 to 94 Heathfield Gardens was served on the building’s owners, Principle [sic] Estate Management, based in Birmingham.
The enforcement notice, dated May 12, 2025, gives Principle until September 1 to comply.
Under Article 30 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the flats have been failed on Article 9, 11, 14 and 17.
Article 9 concerns “Failure to review the fire risk assessment”, which requires the freeholders or the managing agents to “implement regular program[me] to review fire risk assessment.”
Article 11 cites a “Failure in the effective management of the preventive and protective measures.” Principle are required to “implement arrangement for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures”.
Article 14 is for “Failure to provide and/or maintain adequate and clearly indicated emergency routes and exits that lead to a place of safety”. Which, eight years after the Grenfell fire tragedy, might seem to some to be a serious matter.
Principle are required to “ensure that adequate escape routes and exits leading to a place of safety are provided and that these are maintained clear and available for use at all times that the premises is occupied”. Which, the building being residential, is all the time.
Under Article 17, the property owners and managers have been told that they have failed “to ensure that the premises and any facilities, equipment and devices are maintained in an efficient state, in effective working order and in good repair”.
The LFB enforcement order says that the owners and managers must, “Ensure that adequate maintenance systems are in place to ensure that the premises and any facilities, equipment and devices are maintained in an efficient state, in effective working order and in good repair.”
Read more: Brick by Brick’s unsold homes are costing Croydon a fortune
Read more: Anti-crime CCTV cameras nicked from Brick by Brick block
Read more: Brick by Brick residents tell Mayor Perry: ‘We’ve had enough’
Read more: Feeling the heat as residents are stung with 775% price hike
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Where is the incompetent Colm Lacey now?
With his record of abject failure in Croydon, hopefully nobody has been stupid enough to engage with his company, Soft Cities.
I bet the residents of 87 to 94 Heathfield Gardens would like a meeting with Lacey.
An interesting link. I haven’t had time to delve further.
https://nla.london/contributors/colm-lacey
We tend to discourage posting outside links in comments, but will allow this on this occasion.
NLA is one of those extraordinarily incestuous organisations, linked by PR consultants, lobbyists and boosterists, who operate cliques for the benefit of architects, developers and associated chums.
NLA’s leading figures includes a member of LCA, who are handling the PR for Westfield and had Jason Perry spouting bollocks about the long-delayed development recently.
NLA were, or are, fans of Jo Negrini.
Colm Lacey, vacuous, useless and incompetent, who cost this borough’s residents tens of millions, will fit right in.
Boosterists! You are well up in my list of people to admire for reviving this old Americanism. How appropriate to this back-slapping coterie of hubris denialists.
Soft Cities Ltd of which Lacey is Managing Director is now listed as a dormant company at Companies House. Not the best thing to have on your CV.