Social housing to be demolished as post-Grenfell repairs are too expensive

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1. Social housing is being demolished or sold off as owners cannot afford repair bills to make the properties safe in the wake of the Grenfell fire disaster.

   Housing associations have told *The i Paper* they have no choice but to tear down buildings or evict tenants and sell their homes on the open market as no government funding is available to help meet the cost of renovations.

   Government-funded schemes – such as the Building Safety Fund and the Social Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund – launched to replace unsafe cladding in the aftermath of Grenfell are either only available for apartment blocks over 18 metres high or for privately-owned properties.

   Bouverie Court in Easton, Bristol, is set to be torn down in 2026 after housing association Elim Housing was hit with a £4m bill to replace its external cladding and fix other fire defects.

   “It would cost more than £4m to make this building safe,” Elim’s chief executive Paul Smith said. “So, unfortunately, we’re going to have to demolish the building.”

   Bouverie Court was built in 2011 and contains 14 self-contained flats and seven houses which are home to more than 50 residents.

   Elim was pursuing a legal claim against Bouverie Court’s original developer, ISG Pearce, to recover the financial sum, however after ISG Pearce became insolvent and collapsed into administration in September 2024, Elim was unable to progress the claim.

   “We felt that there was not much prospect of getting anything from them or our insurance so we gave up,” Smith said.

   Due to a lack of government funding for repairs to smaller social housing blocks, Smith said he was faced with a grim reality: paying more money than Bouverie Court was worth to make it safe, while also funding temporary accommodation for more than 50 people, or demolishing the homes.

   “It’s inexplicable that there is no government help for social housing providers,” he added.

   “Bristol City Council has agreed to put everyone in the top band on the social housing waiting list. We hope that we can keep people in the community because it’s not just about their home, it’s their neighbourhood and their schools but it’s obviously very distressing.

   “Nobody goes into the business of providing social housing to take people’s homes off them.”

   Elsewhere, other small housing associations are having to resort to selling off social homes to private owners in order to fund fire safety work.

   Kinver House in Archway, north London, is a medium-rise building with serious fire safety issues including flammable timber cladding and missing fire breaks.

2. So basically Grenfell owners are having to pay for their mistakes and they’re punishing poor people for it, because they can’t bully the government into footing the bill.

   Oh those poor, poor billionaires.

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