Owners of a luxury Elephant & Castle block has been warned over its inadequate fire safety measures – just four years after being built where the Heygate Estate used to be.
Developer Lendlease built ‘Hurlock Heights’ on Elephant Park in 2019 and it has already been slapped with an improvement notice because it does not meet fire regulations.
Southwark Council has admitted the revelation “will be concerning for residents” but said the flats were safe enough for them to remain in their homes.
Lendlease has said it is “three quarters of the way” through improvement works which should be completed “in the coming weeks”.
Southwark Council issued the notice after carrying out a borough-wide assessment of medium and high-rise residential blocks.
A council spokesperson said: “An Improvement Notice was served on Hurlock Heights to bring the building up to the required standard. We know this will be concerning for residents who live in the block and their safety is paramount.
“It’s important for them to know that the assessment showed there are sufficient measures in place to protect their health and safety without them needing to leave their homes.”
The 31-storey block – where flats sell for almost £1.5 million – caught fire in November 2021 and 60 firefighters battled the blaze for over an hour.
It is currently unclear whether the fire was caused by any defects that the recent inspection identified.
Lendlease has said some of the points on the Improvement Notice are new regulations that came into effect over the last two years.
The controversial £2.3 billion Elephant Park development has been built on the now demolished Heygate Estate – which had over 1,200 social rent homes.
The new development, which comprises 2,689 homes but with just 541 affordable apartment, has been advertised as “one of the capital’s most exciting places to live, work and visit”.
But the improvement notice joins a growing list of problems residents claim to be facing in Elephant Park. For example, Lendlease recently admitted that neighbouring block West Grove was seeing “a high number of leaks”.
Some people are questioning why issues appear to be arising when the buildings were only recently built.
A spokesperson for Lendlease said: “Our team is already nearly three quarters of the way through work to complete improvements required by Southwark Council.
“The Borough has told us that our positive engagement has been appreciated and they don’t envisage there being any issues with the work being carried out. We’re expecting the works to be complete in the coming weeks and will continue to keep our residents closely informed.”