The five-year scandal of Bristol's Imperial Apartments

Two council contracts to house people in the controversial apartment complex are up for renewal in the next few monthsImperial Apartments in South Bristol

This week, Bristol City Council chiefs hinted they may, finally, be reviewing their policy of sending individuals, couples and families with young children to live in a converted office complex in South Bristol that has become notorious for its living conditions.

If a decision is finally taken to stop housing people at the top of the housing waiting list at Imperial Apartments, it will have massive immediate implications for the city’s housing crisis – and could be the final chapter in a five-year scandal that has seen questions in parliament, daily crime reports, deaths and controversy.

This week, council chiefs running the city’s housing department said they were reviewing the contracts the council has with Caridon, the property firm that runs Imperial Apartments. Half of the council contract with housing provider Caridon, runs out in October, and the other half next spring.

That follows the intervention of national homelessness charity Shelter, which teamed up with seven of South Bristol’s GP surgeries, and the NHS‘ midwifery team in the area, to call on the city council to stop sending families with young children to live at Imperial Apartments, and to move out those that are currently living there. It was the latest twist in a scandal that has been running for almost five years, that Bristol Live has been at the heart of reporting.

All throughout this time, Caridon has said it works positively with the council and that responds to any feedback it gets from residents. It said that, in addition to its duties as a landlord, it also provides additional services such as gyms, a soft play and outdoor play areas.

The controversy over Imperial Apartments began even before the former Parkview council office complex between Whitchurch, Hengrove and Hartcliffe was converted. It was built as the headquarters for long-lost West Country supermarket chain Somerfield, but by the end of the 2010s, it was offices leased to Bristol City Council.

In 2017, council staff turned up to work to find themselves locked out, because the company running the site went bust, and that same year, the site was sold to a property company associated with Caridon, to convert it to flats.

One half the campus was gated off and the flats sold or rented privately, mostly through a shared ownership scheme. The other half was taken over by Caridon and turned into ‘temporary’ accommodation.

Those flats didn’t need planning permission – thanks to a 2013 law to remove red tape on office conversions. It means the flats don’t have to adhere to the usual regulations stipulating a minimum size for accommodation.

In February 2020, Newsnight featured the living conditions in Caridon’s similar converted properties in west London, but later that year, Bristol City Council did a deal with Caridon to block book 216 of the 266 flats on the rented side of the site, pledging to ‘learn from’ the experiences of Caridon tenants in London.

The following year, the council took on another 100 flats, and by the end of 2021, as people started to be referred to live there, Bristol Live began to report the experiences of people who were moved there by the city council.

One mum described Imperial Apartments as ‘the worst’, and a Bristol Live investigation discovered the police were called to the flats more than 200 times in just the first year or so since people began to be moved in.

Throughout November 2021, a series of Bristol Live articles had residents comparing the site to a prison, one said he slept with a hammer next to his bed because it felt so unsafe, and others compared it to living in a storage facility.

November 2021 – Residents at Imperial Apartments in South Bristol have expressed concerns about life at the site. Pictured are overflowing bins(Image: Handout)

The Mayor of Bristol at the time, now Lord Rees of Easton, described Imperial Apartments as the ‘least worst option’, and said the flats were a ‘manifestation of the wicked housing challenge we face’.

A lot of the controversy comes from the way the city council set up the process to rehouse people. Families, often with young children, who find themselves facing homelessness are told by the council they will be put into ‘temporary’ housing at Imperial Apartments, but as soon as they move in, their priority status on the housing waiting list drops, because they now have settled accommodation. That means people move in and struggle to be rehoused by the city council.

In 2022, serious calls for the council to stop sending families with children to live in Imperial Apartments began, after Bristol Live revealed there were more than 80 children who were under the age of five, living there. One mum said her baby ended up in hospital because of a mould problem in her home at Imperial Apartments, and in early 2022, South Bristol MP Karin Smyth directly told the council to stop sending families with children to live there, and to move those that are there out as soon as possible.

Bristol Live continued to report on conditions there. In January 2022, Bristol Live revealed two deaths were linked to Imperial Apartments, and one report found that an ambulance crew was unable to reach a 999 call there, because a security guard had left early.

Residents reported that security guards and Caridon staff ‘repeatedly walked into tenants flats without permission’, and Bristol Live revealed the police were called to deal with incidents there on average once a day – the number of call-outs doubled.

One mum told Bristol Live that her flat in Imperial Apartments was surrounded by men demanding sex by banging on the window.

In February 2022, Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees announced that they would ‘pause’ the process of sending families to live at Imperial Apartments, pending a review. A month later, Karin Smyth MP raised the scandal in parliament, as Bristol Live revealed the number of children living there had risen to more than 100.

Lisa’s bed in her studio flat in Imperial Apartments is next to her tiny kitchen unit where she is forced to drain dishes on the stove because there is nowhere else to put them.

But after Bristol Live revealed in the early summer of 2022 how Bristol City Council drew up a ‘communications plan’ to deal with the reputational fall out from the scandal, in June that year, the council’s own internal review found that Imperial Apartments WAS suitable for children, the ‘pause’ was over and the council began housing families there again, despite the police continuing to be called there almost every day.

Karin Smyth MP said she believed the council review had shown Imperial Apartments wasn’t suitable for children. Throughout the rest of 2022 and into 2023, people living in Imperial Apartments continued to complain about conditions there, mainly focussing on the size of the flats and the issues of public safety, with the mix of tenants. One mum living there said she set up her bed next to the front door, she was so concerned her toddler could get out, and a group of young mums told Bristol Live in 2023 they felt unsafe there, saying the building was infested with maggots and rats.

Caridon hit back, saying it was disappointed with the continuing complaints, after improvements were made to the conditions, and they claimed the ‘vast majority of residents are happy’ at Imperial Apartments.

In 2024, the number of times police were called to Imperial Apartments had fallen – to every other day instead of every day, on average – and Bristol Live continued to report regularly on residents’ experiences there. One man who went to view a privately rented flat there – outside of the council referral scheme – said it was ‘so horrible’ he left within two minutes, and a disabled man housed there by the council said he struggled to breathe in his flat because of ‘severe damp and mould’.

50 year old Terry Boyce in his mouldy home, Friday 20 September 2024 at Imperial Apartments in Bristol. He was forced to box up or bin damaged belongings and could no longer invite his children to his home.(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)

In September 2024, another major Bristol Live investigation into life at Imperial Apartments found residents saying they felt they had ‘been left to rot’ by the council, the flats were smaller than shipping containers and rats ‘roamed the car park’.

This summer, the number of complaints led Shelter to become involved. The national charity brought together residents, health workers, all the GP practices in the area and midwives, to call for urgent action. Top of their list of demands was the same one called for by Karin Smyth MP back in early 2022 – the council should stop sending families with babies and children to live there, and should urgently rehouse the families that are already there.

The five-year scandal of Bristol’s Imperial Apartments

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