A whole bunch of houses in Aberdeen, Scotland, should be evacuated due to the chance of crumbling concrete.
Strengthened autoclaved aerated concrete – or Raac – is a light-weight various to straightforward concrete that was used principally in flat roofing but in addition in flooring and partitions throughout buildings from the Nineteen Fifties to Nineteen Nineties.
However in 2022 development consultants warned it was a “ticking time bomb” and estimated round half of the 4 million non-residential buildings within the UK included it, as Raac began to trigger buildings to break down with out warning.
Raac had a lifespan of solely round 30 years, it was found. Hospitals, colleges, schools and different public buildings had been warned they might face renovation or rebuilding programmes.
Aberdeen Metropolis Council introduced on Thursday that occupants of tons of of council properties had been being moved out of their houses into various lodging – at an preliminary price of £3m – due to the hazard.
Final yr Raac panels had been present in round 500 houses within the metropolis’s Balnagask space, together with 364 council properties, with 299 occupied by council tenants. Others had been owner-occupied or occupied by non-public tenants.
An impartial structural engineers’ report per week in the past on the presence of Raac was revealed final week, recommending that council tenants be moved out as quickly as potential.
The council says it has written to its tenants inviting them to satisfy a housing officer of their dwelling, and has additionally contacted house owners and personal tenants of the houses to supply them a gathering with a housing officer to debate their housing choices.
Officers are taking a look at whether or not the houses ought to be rebuilt or demolished.
The council’s pressing enterprise committee stated it had put aside an preliminary £3m to cowl the rehoming programme.
Councillor Miranda Radley stated: “That is an extremely tough state of affairs for everybody residing in a Raac-affected property, however the council will probably be doing all the pieces we are able to to help our tenants throughout this vastly difficult time.
“These are individuals’s houses, and we have to guarantee we help our tenants but in addition interact with house owners and privately rented tenants, to maintain them knowledgeable on this matter.”
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