Cardinal Lofts: What happens to people forced out of Ipswich flats?

Some 100 residents of a nine-storey block of flats have been asked to leave their homes after a safety report found they were in immediate danger from fire.

The building's freeholder, Grey GR, said extensive surveys had revealed Cardinal Lofts, in Ipswich, was unsafe, and the action to evacuate the building was necessary. What led to the present situation?

On Tuesday, residents of the tower block were sent a letter urging them to leave the building immediately due to fire safety concerns.

In a statement, Grey GR, said it had received the "combined results of several in-depth reports" that showed the "internal compartmentation" was "below expected standards".

"The property is no longer safe for occupation," a spokesman said. 

"We are sincerely sorry to residents and understand how upsetting this news is. However, their safety is our utmost priority."

The new request for a complete evacuation followed a call to leave the building in November, when people living in the top three floors of the block of flats were asked to vacate immediately, after a fire service report deemed the homes to be unsafe.

Grey GR said those floors had to be evacuated because of an unacceptable risk of ineffective automatic opening vents alongside a single access staircase.

Ever since the Grenfell tower block fire tragedy in 2017, which claimed 72 lives, repairs have been required to multi-storey buildings over 11m (36ft) high with unsafe cladding.

A fire safety report the following year identified a "minimal risk" at Cardinal Lofts on Foundry Lane.

But three years ago, the Ipswich Waterfront building with 70 flats was identified as being covered with combustible materials in the cladding.

Another assessment in October 2020, said "combustible materials" on the outside "provide a route for fire to spread".

Ever since, the block has been deemed to be at risk, with a waking-watch service - a 24/7 patrol looking for any signs of fire - brought in, at a cost of £300 each month to residents.

In 2022, the housing secretary Michael Gove said no leaseholder living in a building more than 11m high would face any costs for fixing dangerous cladding.

The cost of making a block of flats safe was supposed to be absorbed by the owners of the whole building and the land, also known as the freeholder.

But in practice the cost has often been passed on to the owners of individual flats (leaseholders).

A group known as the Ipswich Cladiators has been campaigning on behalf of leaseholders facing huge bills for flats with fire safety risks.

Alex Dickin, who helped set up the group, and who has a flat on the fifth floor of Cardinal Lofts, said: "We need to have a serious conversation with the government and the building owner about compensation for the residents who have had their lives turned upside down again."

All but a handful of residents have left the block of flats and are now staying in local hotels.

Adam Mackintosh moved into his rental flat at Cardinal Loft's in April 2022 but said he was unaware of the fire safety issues when he moved in.

He received a letter telling him to go to a hotel, where he would stay for up to one to two weeks. No information was given about what might happen after that period, he said.

"There's no timescale as to how long anything might take," says Mr Mackintosh, who is still paying rent to his landlord.

"I don't know where I'm going to be living for the next few months. It's very, very unsettling.

"I would have thought after November we would have got at least a few days notice before something like this happened, not less than 24 hours."

Paige Symonds who has rented a flat in the block for the past four years says being forced to leave "was just a bit of a shock".

She was trying to find somewhere else to rent but nothing was available.

"I haven't cried yet, but I can feel it coming," she says. "I've been angry, I've been stressed. I just wish there was more we could do, I wish we could live in our homes.

"As a 26-year-old, I don't know how to deal with it."

Ipswich's Conservative MP Tom Hunt says he has spoken with the government's buildings safety minister, Lee Rowley, to secure "decent living accommodation" and "adequate compensation" for residents.

"I want to make sure that decent temporary compensation is provided, that all my constituents are adequately compensated and that they get some clarity over the timescales," he says.

"The scale of the defects are quite significant and I think the time it may take to remediate them may be significant."

Mr Hunt says if Cardinal Lofts' freeholder "cracked on with resolving those defects when they should have done, probably the building would have been sorted by now and the residents would have been back in there".

He has also called for laws introduced by his party to be made more robust.

"The government still needs to do a lot when it comes to regulation... there needs to be adequate penalties," he says.

Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling up, Housing and Communities, has gone even further.

On Wednesday Mr Gove Tweeted that legal action was being initiated by government lawyers to force Grey GR to "fix them [flats] urgently, so that people can get in their homes".

Grey GR and its parent company RailPen have been asked to respond to the criticisms made on Wednesday by Mr Gove and Mr Hunt.

Grey GR said on Tuesday: "We are sincerely sorry to residents and understand how upsetting this news is, however their safety is our utmost priority.

"The full extent of the issues within the building could only have been uncovered by recent intrusive surveys.

"Grey is committed to remediating the issues caused by the developers of Cardinal Lofts.

"We ask all those living in Cardinal Lofts to comply with the evacuation requirements and leave the building."

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