During a meeting last week with residents of Waryn House in Thorpe Edge, Bradford East MP, Imran Hussain has blasted Incommunities for presiding over a ‘House of Horrors’ at the high-rise block that has left vulnerable residents scared and neglected.

Over the past several months, residents living at Waryn House, a residential high-rise tower block in Thorpe Edge managed by Incommunities, have contacted Imran to raise their fears and serious concerns about the failure of Incommunities to undertake proper maintenance of the building which has left it in a serious state of disrepair putting the health, wellbeing and safety of residents at risk.

During his visit to Waryn House to meet with residents, Imran documented a catalogue of failings and dangers including:

• Lifts that frequently break down which have forced an 83yr old woman living on the building’s sixth floor to climb 12 flights of stairs, whilst another disabled woman who relies on mobility aids fell and suffered injuries leaving her with a brain bleed because she had to take the stairs.
• Flats with poor water supplies that have left a man in his 70s having to bathe himself and wash his clothes in his kitchen sink for the last five years because the plumbing for his shower and washing machine haven’t been fixed.
• Rusty safety railings both on walkways and stairs which are badly secured to the building and missing sections in places, and which led to an older man falling and suffering a significant head injury when he used the railing for support.
• Leaking roofs that leads to water running down walls and walkways inside the building when there is heavy rain.
• Damp and black mould which has been left untreated and now spreading through walls into one family’s food storage cupboards, and leaving young children in flats with breathing difficulties.

However, despite residents of Waryn House repeatedly raising these concerns with Incommunities, and Imran raising them on their behalf over six months ago, they remain unresolved.

Speaking on the dire situation for residents at Waryn House, Imran said:

“What I have seen at Waryn House is nothing short of a House of Horrors for the people who live here, and it is hands down the worst maintained and most neglected building that I have ever seen managed by a social landlord anywhere in the Bradford District.

“Speaking with the people of Waryn House, I heard of young families and disabled residents getting trapped in lifts for hours on end, of residents having to bathe in sinks because of showers that have been broken for years, of recurring damp inside homes causing breathing difficulties, and of rusted railings being the only thing between people and a huge drop to the concrete below.

“No one deserves to have to live like this, and this dire situation raises very serious questions about the ability and the competence of Incommunities in keeping their tenants safe, with the very real fear that they have let Waryn House deteriorate so badly it has now become a deathtrap for the people who live there.

“I will be raising this matter again directly with the Chief Executive of Incommunities to demand that all these serious failings are immediately addressed, and I will also be pressing the Housing Minister to take action against social landlords such as Incommunities who let their properties fall into such dangerous disrepair.”