More Camden tower block residents staying put despite evacuation

The number of households defying Camden council’s order to stay out of four high-rise tower blocks over fire safety concerns has almost doubled since Sunday night.

On Tuesday 184 households were in their flats, up 81 since Sunday night. A council spokesman said this indicated some families had returned to their homes.

Residents of the Bray, Burnham, Taplow and Dorney blocks on the Chalcots estate were ordered to leave on Friday, after the London fire brigade identified significant safety failings, including gas pipes missing vital insulation, blocked stairwells and breaches of internal walls in an emergency inspection commissioned after the Grenfell Tower fire.

The blocks were also found to use the same form of aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding that is believed to have contributed to the Grenfell fire’s rapid spread. Camden council told residents to leave so it could carry out urgent fire safety improvements. All five towers on the Chalcots estate had undergone fire risk assessments since January 2016, the council told the Guardian.

It is not clear how residents have managed to return to their homes, a council spokesman said, since there are security guards on the doors and residents are only supposed to be allowed in to collect possessions with a security escort.

The council is trying to use persuasion to move people, but Georgia Gould, the council’s leader, said that they also had “various legal routes” open to them.

This would take the form of an injunction, which could be enforced by bailiffs if necessary, said Jayesh Kunwardia, a partner at solicitors Hodge Allen & Jones. This would be hard for residents to resist.

“To run an argument to say the tenant or the leaseholder should be allowed to stay, when there are clear signs that there are fire risks associated with the property, I think the judge would clearly dismiss that argument,” said Kunwardia.

Gould added that the council did not want to force people to leave. “We want to work with residents who are yet to evacuate and strongly encourage them to leave their homes and fix up temporary accommodation,” she said. “We need to get the buildings empty so we can work with our partners to start the work to make these tower blocks safe, so that everyone can return to their normal lives as soon as possible.”

People have been sent to hotels and B&Bs across London or to stay with family members, with some residents staying in an emergency centre set up at Swiss Cottage sports hall. Kunwardia told the Guardian he is aware of at least one family with children who have been living in the sports hall since Friday evening, in conditions he described as “not suitable, certainly for children”. His firm has been contacted by about a dozen families since it opened an advice line.

Gould said in a statement on Tuesday: “I do understand that this is an extremely difficult time and we’re working with individual households to find appropriate temporary accommodation for their specific family needs.”

Some have complained about being housed in hotels as far afield as Edmonton or Wembley, and about a lack of cooking or washing facilities. The council is making £20 a day available to each evacuated resident to cover additional food, laundry or travel bills, a spokesman said.

Kunwardia said: “There was one gentleman who had been offered accommodation on Monday morning in Islington but on Saturday night he found it incredibly difficult to be in the leisure centre, so went back to the block and was allowed to go back in and I believe he stayed there overnight.”

One Bray Tower resident who is still in his flat – a lecturer who asked not to be named – told the Guardian on Monday that the building’s fire safety had not changed since it was renovated almost a decade ago. “Nothing changed on Friday evening that hasn’t been the same for the past nine years,” he said. “Certainly, if they say they want to evacuate to achieve the works I will do that, but they did the whole refurbishment without anybody leaving.”

He lives on one of the lower floors and said he felt able to leave quickly if the situation required it. “I packed a small bag, took all necessary precautions in terms of turning off the electricity … They’ve advised, and I’ve said I understand the advice and take it on board, thank you very much,” he said. He told the Guardian on Monday he was allowed in and out of his flat.