RAAC crisis worsens as tenants and students leave their homes

Calls grow for a national social housing audit as the crisis deepens - as ministers scramble to determine how many government buildings contain RAAC

The University of East Anglia moved its students to new accommodation after the discovery of the RAAC (

Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A university must find new rooms for 600 students after closing two city blocks over concrete fears as the RAAC crisis hit apartment buildings.

The closures of the University of East Anglia in Norwich follow those of Heathrow and Gatwick, which said RAACs had been found in buildings in recent years. Experts have warned the scandal could extend beyond cases of school and hospital roofs collapsing, as ministers have been called to carry out a nationwide social housing audit.

Heathrow and Gatwick revealed on Friday that RAACs had been found in buildings at both airports in recent years. Town Center House, run by the council, in Banbury, Oxfordshire, was evacuated earlier this year after planks of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) were discovered in the roof.

The former office building, built in the 1980s but left empty for a decade, was bought by a private company and leased to the municipality in 2016 to turn it into 39 apartments. This will raise new questions about Conservative Housing Secretary Michael Gove's efforts to convert more empty commercial properties into residential housing.

Housing Secretary Michael Gove (

Picture:

POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

RAAC was most commonly used for roofing low-rise, flat-roofed buildings - more common in commercial than residential properties. But over the past seven years, 94,000 homes have been converted from empty offices, shops and factories thanks to 'permitted development' rights - which allow developers to bypass local controls and battles over permits to build.

And last month Mr Gove boasted of his plans to “cut red tape even further”, by doubling the size of buildings that can be converted and allowing more conversions in conservation areas. The Ministry of Upgrades, Housing and Communities said it was not aware of any incidents of RAAC failures in social housing.

And a spokesperson for the social housing regulator said the watchdog did not believe the substance was "widespread" in Britain's social housing stock. But on Thursday, the openDemocracy site claimed that the RAAC had been identified...