In the headlines, the story often ends with the evacuation. What we hear less about are those trapped in limbo – the ones who stay because they have no choice. Some are caring for elderly relatives who can’t easily be moved. Others can’t afford temporary accommodation or have nowhere else to go. For them, daily life has become a test of endurance.
The number of people affected by unsafe homes continues to climb. Nearly 10,000 have already been displaced, yet many more are effectively imprisoned in half-remediated blocks. Fire alarms sound daily. Lifts are out of service for weeks. Contractors come and go, often working through the night. And for residents, complaints about disruption or safety are too often met with silence or hostility.
Reports from several affected buildings describe tense relationships between residents and contractors. Some residents have spoken of being told to “just live with it” when raising health concerns about dust or noise. Others have had notices pinned to their doors warning them not to interfere with works – even when access routes are blocked or windows sealed shut. It’s not uncommon for scaffolding to cover every window, cutting off natural light for months at a time.
Meanwhile, the bills keep coming. Service charges, insurance premiums, and heating costs all climb as buildings sit under remediation. For leaseholders, the financial and emotional toll is staggering – paying for a home that no longer feels like one. Renters too are caught in the middle, paying full rent for partial habitability.
And for those who were evacuated, life hasn’t been much easier. Take Oldham, where residents from Victory Apartments were told to leave because of fire risks. One leaseholder has spent years living in a student hostel, sharing bathrooms and washing clothes in a bucket. In Dagenham, the Freshwater Road fire left more than a hundred people homeless overnight. The council acted quickly to open rest centres, yet long-term rehousing has been patchy and slow.
In Bristol, the evacuation of Barton House in late 2023 showed just how unprepared many local authorities are for a crisis of this scale. Hundreds of residents – including families with children – found themselves scattered across hotels and temporary lets, while arguments over who should pay delayed progress.
Local councils face their own challenges. Emergency rehousing is costly and limited, meaning many residents are encouraged to “stay put” while work continues. Yet the reality of living through that process is rarely acknowledged. Dust seeps into bedrooms. Balconies are sealed. Fire exits are re-routed through scaffolding. The strain on mental health is immense, particularly for those who already endured years of uncertainty before works even began.
For those evacuated, the waiting game continues elsewhere – in hotels, hostels, or temporary lets. For those still inside, it’s the daily disruption, the feeling of being forgotten, that cuts deepest. They’re told it’s progress, yet for many, it feels more like punishment.
On Friday at 1pm, Cladding Matters turns its focus to these residents – the ones caught between evacuation and restoration. We’ll be discussing the pressures they face, the lack of accountability, and how these “temporary” hardships are lasting far too long. Joining the conversation will be Stephen Day and Melisa White, who brings her own lived experience of evacuation due to remediation work on her building, along with Gareth Wax as host and producer, and myself, Hamish McLay.
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