Croydon Council is to carry out checks on its 90 flats in Malcolm Wicks House, the fourth block built in the Queen’s Quarter where the 35-storey private rental tower The Fold is being evacuated to allow its owners to completely strip the building due to persistent mould, damp and leaks.
No problems: Malcolm Wicks House, run by Croydon Council, is the shorter tower in front of the mouldy Fold
Croydon Council says it has written to tenants and told them there’s nothing to worry about. Which is nice.
The building was only completed in 2022.
Earlier this month, Fold residents called in the London Fire Brigade to conduct an urgent safety assessment, due to concerns about faulty fire shutters and fire doors that do not fit. Managers for Legal and General, the insurance giant that owns the building, maintain that The Fold is safe and has been subject to independent fire checks.
L&Q, the housing association which manages the neighbouring Bloom House and Chorus Apartments, sent in building engineers to check their blocks earlier this month.
Malcolm Wicks House, The Fold, Bloom House and Chorus Apartments are a council-led residential development in the so-called Queen’s Quarter, built on the site of the former Croydon Council office block, Taberner House, and stand between the Croydon Flyover, the council’s offices and the Town Hall.
The 500-home scheme, which built over a large section of Croydon town centre’s only public park, was approved by the council’s then chief executive, Jo Negrini, and backed by the then cabinet member for housing, Alison Butler.
The scheme received £100million in housing grants from the Greater London Authority.
Mouldy Fold: residents in the private rented L&G block have lived with conditions like this in their homes for years
All four blocks were built on the council-owned site from March 2018. That is after the Grenfell Tower disaster in Kensington in June 2017, when 72 people died in Britain’s worst residential fire since World War II.
Contractors Henry Construction, who built the four blocks, have since gone out of business.
The significant issues over poor build quality have also raised important questions over the role of Croydon Council in enforcing – or failing to enforce – building regulations.
Only half of the flats in The Fold are thought to be occupied at present.
Some three-bedroom apartments in the block were costing up to £3,000 per month in rent.
The public relations firm hired by L&G declined to comment when asked if they were considering legal action against the developers, Hub, for compensation. L&G paid £100million for what has turned out to be the mouldy Fold in 2018.
Croydon politicians from most parties have spoken out to condemn the appalling conditions in The Fold. But Jason Perry, the failed Mayor of Croydon, has been silent on the matter.
A spokesperson for Perry’s cash-strapped council claimed that so far no “similar issues have come to light” at the 21-floor Malcolm Wicks House, named after the former Labour MP for Croydon North.
But this is the same council that for four years denied that there were any issues with mould, damp and leaks in council flats on Regina Road.
The council spox said: “To ensure the ongoing safety of our residents, the building will shortly be undergoing surveys as part of our regular programme of building safety checks.”
In the statement, the council failed to define what it means by “shortly”.
They said: “We have written to the residents of Malcolm Wicks House to reassure them that there are no concerns with their block, and our building safety and tenancy management team has been walking the block and door-knocking to provide support and reassurance.”
Of course, if any residents of Malcolm Wicks House want to get in touch and air their views on the situation, our address is on this page…
Read more: ‘Let us be free from this hellhole’: Fold tenants issue demands
Read more: The Fold folds: Hundreds of tenants given six months to leave
Read more: Croydon shamed over ‘dangerous squalor’ in council flats
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Surprised you didn’t go for Mouldy Old Fold in homage to Lieutenant Pigeon’s homophonous hit
One of the problems with The Fold is that Henry claimed to have completed it. One of their other sites was in Bermondsey (visible from the train north of New Cross Gate station). that was incomplete and nothing happened for quite a while but it now seems to have (hopefully more competent) contractors who have taken over the project, and they should have time and the knowledge to correct all of Henry’s errors/shortcomings.
If Mark Henry ever rears his ugly head again with a third company, after Lancsville and then Henry Construction both went bust, I guess ripped off subcontractors will have the opportunity to take revenge against him ?!