People to be moved out of Cambridge sheltered housing over ‘substantial’ fire safety concerns

‘Substantial’ fire safety concerns have been raised about a sheltered housing site in Cambridge. Cambridge City Council has said it will be moving all those currently living in Stanton House to other sheltered accommodation in the city. The authority is considering redeveloping the site in Christchurch Street, but has said they will move people out while plans are considered to ensure people’s safety.

At a meeting of the city council’s housing scrutiny committee this week (June 18), officers said the authority had originally planned to link the redevelopment of Stanton House with a new build project on East Road, in order to move people from Stanton House into the new scheme.

However, they said a fire risk assessment had found there was a “substantial” risk to the building and people living there if there was a fire. A report presented to the committee said it was estimated it would cost £635,000 to complete the essential maintenance works needed at Stanton House.

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However, officers said this was not an investment the city council would want to put into a building that “does not have a longer term future within [its] portfolio”. Officers said the safety of people living at Stanton House was “paramount”, which is why a 24/7 ‘waking watch’ had been put in place to assist with an evacuation in the event of a fire.

The report said this safety measure was costing the authority £2,025 per week. The city council has also put aside £333,000 to cover the decanting payments it will make to people being moved out of the building. Officers said the work looking at the future options for redeveloping Stanton House would continue, adding that a report on these options is expected to be published in September.

Councillor Anthony Matinelli said the city council needed to make sure those living in the sheltered housing were kept safe and welcomed the work the authority had done to try and ensure this. He also said he wanted to highlight his preference for social housing to be included in the redevelopment options for the site.

Harmony Birch, a tenant representative on the committee, said she had some concerns about potential housing for the elderly being lost, and said the city council should look at replacing it with new homes for older people. Officers said there was other sheltered housing in the city where they could move the people too.

They also said the city council needed to look at understanding what types of housing older people wanted in the city, as they said not all of the existing sheltered housing the authority had was meeting the needs of older people in Cambridge. However, she said there was not currently the resources to undertake a project looking into that and said the city council would need to consider how it could finance that work.