Canning Town residents living in emergency housing after water leak

Hundreds of east Londoners are paying for their own emergency housing after being evacuated from their flats.

Homes and businesses in Hallsville Quarter, Canning Town, are still without electricity after a burst pipe flooded a basement on Tuesday.

Managing agent FirstPort has told residents to pay for their own hotel rooms for more than a week, saying they will be reimbursed by insurers.

But residents are unhappy at the cost and lack of communication.

Thames Water said it was called to a business property in Hallsville Quarter, a high street, leisure and residential complex, after flooding was reported.

A spokesperson said: "We have found concrete in the nearby sewer line, which is suspected to be have been caused by a third party and we're investigating this to confirm the concrete's origin."

"We're organising the repair of the pipe, which was damaged by the third party, to help get things back to normal as quickly as possible," they added.

"In the meantime we've set up tankers to pump away water and to prevent any further damage to the affected property."

There have been additional problems since the leak occurred meaning electricity cannot be restored to the building yet, and residents have been told they must continue to stay elsewhere.

FirstPort said it had struggled to find accommodation for those affected due to the half-term holidays, and suggested people book their own hotel rooms up to the value of £180 per night.

On Thursday it announced a consultant would be booking roughly 250 hotel rooms from 29 October to 1 November for residents who require them.

But the company has still not given those affected a date for when they can expect to be reimbursed for the cost of accommodation and food, telling them there will be a "timeline" for payments once receipts for the incident are sent to insurers.

Plamena Solakova jointly rents a flat in the complex. She and her flatmate were told to evacuate and find and pay for their own accommodation.

Ms Solakova said the incident had been "incredibly unsettling and upsetting".

"No-one helped us to find hotels, we had to book at the last minute at huge cost," she said.

"We've spent over £600 in the last 72 hours on hotel and food bills. We have absolutely no idea when we'll be getting this money back, what the process will be.

"It's absolutely unreasonable in our view that we're being asked to handle this situation on our own."

Business owners in Hallsville Quarter have also been unable to open at all and said they were concerned their restaurants and cafés would be severely affected financially, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reports.

Leo Mometti, who owns Italian coffee and wine shop Yapix House, said he had been left "devastated" by the power cut.

"I've lost a lot of money, we've been very unlucky as we ordered loads of meat from Italy," he said. 

"All the stock, all of the food, everything is off. This weekend was very busy, so we ordered a lot of food and the meat is very expensive, it's from an Italian supplier. I'll probably take it home, I can't sell it to customers."

Newham Council has set up a respite area at Trinity Community Centre where people can charge electrical items, rest, and use public facilities.

A spokesperson for the council said it was "supporting residents by assisting the management company", and fire wardens and security guards would "continue patrols in the affected blocks".

"We will continue to monitor the situation closely and stand ready to assist if required," they added.

FirstPort issued a statement saying: "The safety of our residents at Hallsville Quarter is our absolute priority.

"As the development has been without power and water following the flooding, we have worked with the local council to evacuate most residents to alternative accommodation.

"We have had colleagues on site throughout to support residents and we're working at pace to get them back into their homes as soon as it is safe to do."

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