According to doctors’ predictions, Jeffrey King could die any day now, and he doesn’t want to spend what’s left of his life in the “sweatbox” block of flats in Sutton
“I’m under enough pressure now, I’m dying,” said 69-year-old resident Jeffrey King, sitting in the lounge of his Balaam House flat in Sutton, where the temperature had just reached 30C. “The last thing I want to do is sit here baking to death.”
Jeffrey was given two years to live in August 2024 after being diagnosed with blood cancer. While he says he tries to make the most of each day, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the conditions inside his flat are making what could be his final days increasingly uncomfortable.
“Everyone would like a longer life,” he said. “When you have got to go, you’ve got to go, but I’d rather not be sitting in a sweat box.”
Jeffrey said his career as a highways engineer working on roads between London and the South Coast had acclimatised him to working in intense heat. However, he admitted: “Once you have been off it for a few years, your body doesn’t react to it in the same way.”
He added: “Without exaggerating, I changed my T-shirt and shorts five times yesterday, and I keep the blinds closed all day. I have to get out as much as possible.”
The LDRS first visited Balaam House on Collingwood Road, West Sutton, in June, at the start of this summer’s run of consecutive heatwaves. Our report revealed that some of the more than 100 residents in the 1960s tower block had suffered heat-related illnesses, including vomiting, with several temporarily rehoused.
“When people say ‘enjoy the heat’, I think ‘that’s alright for you, why don’t you come down to Balaam House and say that?’” resident Rhonda Scott previously told the LDRS. She said some residents had reported temperatures of up to 35C inside their flats.
Jeffrey said the excessive heat had become a regular topic of conversation among residents since the LDRS’s last visit. “Everyone is overheating, everyone is ratty,” he said, adding that another resident had been admitted to hospital with a heat-related issue since June.
“This weather and living in this building makes you miserable,” he added.
The building is managed by Sutton Housing Partnership (SHP), an arms-length company that manages Sutton Council’s housing stock. While SHP has provided temporary rehousing, water and cooling fans during the successive heatwaves, Jeffrey believes these measures have been insufficient to address the wider problem.
“Giving people water and fans is just scratching at the surface of the problem,” he told the LDRS. “They are admitting there is a problem with the heating of the building by offering fans.”
He also expressed frustration that, while Sutton Council approved plans in June to spend more than £1m on a new boiler house behind Balaam House, no commitment has been made to longer-term cooling measures, such as air conditioning, inside the tower.
As a result, he has become increasingly frustrated by SHP’s response to residents’ concerns. “They treat you like mushrooms, they keep you in the dark and feed you b******t,” he added.
“If they were upfront and said ‘we are looking at air conditioning units’, it gives you some kind of hope. But they are not giving us hope,” he said.
Despite this, he said residents remain united in pushing for change. “I am fighting for the people within the block now,” he said.
Cladding confusion
Alongside their concerns about overheating, Balaam House residents remain frustrated by what they describe as a lack of clarity over the cladding surrounding the 18-storey block.
Residents told the LDRS that previous cladding reports contained “conflicting” information about the building’s cladding and varying fire safety assessments, leaving them questioning why conclusions about its safety had changed.
“People are exhausted and fed up,” Rhonda Scott told the LDRS. “For years we’ve been told different things about the same building.”
“One report said Balaam House needed remedial work because of concerns about the cladding and fire breaks, while later reports said no major works were needed.
“We’re not trying to argue with the fire engineers who write these reports. We just want to see the evidence, inspections and Building Control records that explain why the conclusions changed.”
Rhonda also raised concerns about a recent fire risk assessment, which she said was not initially shown to residents, and questioned its use of photographs taken months before the assessor visited.
Residents’ concerns over the cladding were raised by local Green Party activist Helen John during last month’s Sutton Council meeting. She asked Lib Dem Councillor Jake Short whether new Fire Risk Appraisals of External Walls (FRAEW) would be carried out at Balaam House and neighbouring Chaucer House following Sutton Housing Partnership’s £380,000 contract with Axion Consultancy.
A FRAEW is a specialist assessment of a building’s external wall system, including its cladding and insulation, to identify potential fire risks. Councillor Short, Chair of the Housing, Economy and Business Committee, responded saying the council had already shared Balaam House’s FRAEW with residents, which concluded that “no remedial works are required to the cladding or external wall systems”.
However, Helen said she had compiled a list of cladding-related evidence available to residents, ward councillors and the council over the past decade. After review, she concluded that the “evidence is conflicting and confusing”.
Cllr Short responded by asking for a copy of the evidence, before acknowledging: “I know there has been some information shared previously about particular blocks that has not been correct and we need to make sure residents are not being unnecessarily worried.”
Rhonda said residents were also angered by SHP’s description of the resources being spent on Balaam House as representing less than 1% of the council’s homes. In an email, SHP’s Interim Asset Investment & Sustainability Director Vin Roche said Reform UK Councillor Alison Long’s repeated requests for action at Balaam House were “placing an unsustainable and inappropriate demand on SHP’s resources”.
Rhonda said the comment was “deeply insulting and hurtful” and brought back memories of Grenfell Tower residents feeling their concerns were not being heard.
“For us, this isn’t a percentage. It’s our homes, our families and our safety,” she told the LDRS. “All we’re asking for is honesty, transparency and some straight answers.”
Speaking to the LDRS, SHP confirmed that Balaam House’s cladding was predominantly steel and said its recent fire safety assessment was independently carried out. It added that the report was provided to a resident who requested it on July 29.
SHP said it had supported residents during the heatwaves with free fans, welfare visits, bottled water and heat sensors to identify homes that may need free air conditioning. Regarding Jeffrey, it said it had offered work to reduce temperatures in his flat, but they claim he declined it, and staff had continued to check on him.
Jeffrey told the LDRS he had declined the temporary cooling measures because of the additional cost of running them, which he said would be unaffordable on his low pension. He believes SHP should instead commit to longer-term solutions to cool the building.
Steve Tucker, Managing Director of Sutton Housing Partnership, told the LDRS: “It is really important to me and my colleagues at Sutton Housing Partnership that we provide all our residents safe and decent homes.
“When it comes to Balaam House, the building is safe. The outcomes of important safety surveys are communicated to residents with the full reports available on request. However, to show we are being completely transparent, we will be sending all the relevant fire safety surveys to all residents in the block.
“If residents have any questions about these surveys, I would encourage them to contact us and we will be happy to answer any questions they have. This includes any questions from councillors.
“We would never stop residents from engaging with councillors, nor would SHP stop answering councillors’ questions.”
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