09 September 2023 , 18:44
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A university must find new rooms for 600 students after shutting two blocks over concrete fears, as the RAAC crisis reached residential buildings.
University of East Anglia’s closures in Norwich follow Heathrow and Gatwick saying RAAC had been found in buildings in recent years. Experts have warned the scandal could reach beyond cases of collapsing rooves in schools and hospitals as ministers faced calls to conduct an audit of social housing nationwide.
Heathrow and Gatwick revealed on Friday that RAAC had been found in buildings at both airports in recent years. Council-run block Town Centre House, in Banbury, Oxfordshire, was evacuated earlier this year, after reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) planks were found in the roof.
The former office block, built in the 1980s but left empty for a decade, was bought by a private firm and leased to the council in 2016 to turn into 39 flats. It will prompt fresh questions over Tory Housing Secretary Michael Gove ’s push to convert more empty commercial properties into residential homes.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)RAAC was most commonly used in the roofing of low-rise, flat-roofed buildings - more common in commercial properties than residential. But in the last seven years, 94,000 homes were converted from empty offices, shops and factories under “permitted development” rights - which allow developers to bypass local scrutiny and planning permission battles.
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And last month Mr Gove boasted of plans to “cut red tape” even further, doubling the size of buildings that can be converted and allowing more conversions in conservation areas. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said it is unaware of any RAAC failure incidents in social housing.
And a spokesperson for the Regulator of Social Housing said the watchdog doesn’t believe the substance is “widespread” in Britain’s social housing stock. But on Thursday, the website openDemocracy claimed RAAC had been identified in another residential site, a council estate in Essex which they did not name. And one expert told this newspaper up to 30-40% of flat-roof buildings of the right type and age could potentially contain the substance.
“I’ve found it in extensions,” Richard Crow, a partner at construction consultancy Rapley’s said. “An add on to an older building. It could be a single storey, but also a second, third fourth store, depending where the flat roof is. And anything built as a council house, or now a housing association-type building, it could be in those. But nobody knows because to the lay person it just looks like a concrete panel roof.”
Christian Stone, a technical expert at Technical Expert at Concrete Preservation Technologies (CPT), said: “The UK has likely hundreds of thousands or even millions of these planks in place on public buildings past their intended design life and there have been few failures.
“However, a single failure in the wrong place could be a catastrophe. Therefore, it is very understandable that caution is being taken, many of these planks may have considerable more life if properly surveyed, managed, and maintained.”
A spokesperson for Cherwell District Council said, “We are aware of RAAC planks in the roof of Town Centre House in Banbury and early this year completed the rehousing of the residents. We have taken steps to ascertain how the roof can be refitted and the flats made safe again for people to live in. We will be commencing work on the project during the autumn.”
They added: “We continue to work with over 30 registered providers of social housing to encourage them to improve the quality of their housing stock for local residents and are in consultation with them on this issue. Early indications are that this isn’t an area of concern.”
A government spokesperson said: “The government has acted decisively to tackle this issue and has taken a proportionate approach informed by experts.
"That professional advice from experts on RAAC has evolved over time, from advice in the 1990s that RAAC did not pose a safety hazard to more recent advice on identifying and assessing structural adequacy. The Office of Government Property wrote to all Government Property Leaders in 2021, and again in September 2022, highlighting safety alerts on RAAC and signposting guidance on identification and remediation. The Government also created an urgent working group on RAAC this year to address the issue. Since then, departments have been surveying properties and depending on the assessment of the RAAC, decided to either continue to monitor the structure, reinforce it, or replace it. This is in line with the approach recommended by the Institution of Structural Engineers.”