Residents in Mansfield Council’s London flats with £20m fire safety issues to leave building in May

The council has also confirmed it will appoint contractor Lambert Smith Hampton to empty the building, on Bedford Road, Clapham, so major repairs can begin.

The contract also includes funding temporary accommodation for each household and storage costs.

It follows serious fire safety issues being found at the building in 2018 requiring its walls, floors and ceilings to be ripped out, so it can be rebuilt internally.

The council – then led by the Mansfield Independent Forum – decided to buy the building in October 2014, at a cost of £5.95m, as an investment to diversify income, shore up budgets and fund services.

The sale went through in January 2017 before an independent assessment a year later – in the wake of updated regulation for cladding and fire safety following the Grenfell Tower disaster of June 2017 – found “a number of” serious fire safety issues.

A separate notice of fire safety deficiencies was issued by the London Fire Brigade after other issues were found, including the absence of 60 minutes’ of fire resistance for escape routes and problems with fire exits in the basement car park.

Almost £20m has been allocated to fixing the issues between 2018 and 2025, with the authority’s budget papers confirming £12m will be spent in 2023/24.

Now new documents have revealed the works could take a step closer next week, with LSH to be appointed to assist all 40 households out of the building and into alternative accommodation.

It will manage tenants and leaseholders until April 2025, with the contract costing the authority £2.28m.

A council spokesman said: “The contractor will be conducting works on behalf of the council, establishing communications with tenants, storage and removal arrangements and the management of alternative accommodation.”

A report confirmed the contract will be “all-inclusive”, including funding rent payments, cash settlements and removal fees directly to the residents.

It follows people in the building previously reporting their lives being left “in limbo” by repeated delays to the relocation.

Occupants were originally told the work would begin in 2021 before it was first delayed until August 2022.

A further delay to May 2023 led to frustrations that it may never begin.

Another contractor will need to be appointed to conduct the fire safety repairs.

Harry Palmer has lived in the building with his partner Charlotte Veal since it was first built in 2017.

The couple is in a shared ownership agreement on the flat and revealed last year they will be leaving their home for as long as a year.

Mr Palmer said in September: “They’ve given us a choice of finding somewhere for us, or they will give us money to find somewhere else to live while this happens.”

Ms Veal said: “We’ll be moving out for between six months and a year. When we move out, the council has said it will pay all the costs.

“Everything has to be ripped out of the flats and we’ve got to take everything out of our own.

“It’s going to be very intrusive work – the floors, ceilings and walls have got to come out.”