Updates on Riverside Place

We shared with you in November that the current proposed return date for Riverside Place is January 2027.

Our priority remains getting the necessary work carried out to ensure the safety of the building and allow you to return to your home.

As we get closer to this date, we intend to be able to update you with the exact details of how this return will look. It is likely that we will phase the return over a short period of time to ensure everyone’s safety and ease when moving back into your homes.

We have been granted the necessary planning permission amendment required for the change of material to the external facade.

This approval allows our contractors to get working on installing the new framing system and render.

Our contractor is currently securing subcontractors and are due to commence works in February 2026.

As described in updates to customers last year, when our contractor began to remove the original blockwork on site it was discovered that there was a varied cavity.

This would have meant the previous approach would not have been approved by Building Regulations as we would have been unable to install fire cavity barriers.

As such, we asked the contractor to propose a new solution which would allow us to to install the necessary fire cavity barriers within the cavity. They proposed the installation of carrier board with render.

As this new solution is considered a change to the building, we were required to seek a planning permission amendment, which has been granted.

We know how frustrating this latest delay has been for everyone. We want you to be able to be back in your home as soon as possible, but it is essential that the work we do to Riverside Place is sufficient and a long-term solution.

Throughout the time you are out of your home, we will continue to ensure you have suitable alternative accommodation.

Wherever possible, we intend this to be the current home you are living in to minimise any further disruption you are facing. Our team has been speaking directly with these landlords from the moment we knew of the latest delay, with the intention of securing them throughout the further delay.

Because of a change in legislation recently, there may be some situations where we are unable to secure a longer lease or the landlord requires new affordability checks.

In those instances, our team will make sure they are keeping you up to date as we secure a new property for you to stay in during the delays.

You may have read in the news recently about the introduction of the Renters’ Rights Bill.

This new legislation has a direct impact on the decanted tenancies we have negotiated to ensure you have somewhere safe and stable to stay during the ongoing work at Riverside Place.

This is the reason you may have heard that some of our tenancy renewals have moved to monthly rolling contracts when we extended them after the most recent delay.

While this might sound concerning, we can reassure you that the team is doing everything they can to ensure you have a safe, reliable temporary home while works continue on Riverside Place.

Where possible, we are trying to avoid customers having the disruption of needing to move though there may be some instances where a private landlord we are renting from is either unable to provide us with the security of tenancy we would want for you, or requires new affordability checks to be carried out.

In those instances, our team will make sure they are keeping you up to date as we secure a new property for you to stay in during the delays.

As we have shared with you previously, we have made compensation payments to cover council tax costs for 2025/26 tax year, as we have done in previous years.

We will continue to provide this compensation for the duration of the delays, until you are back in your home.

We will also continue to compensate customers at a rate of £125.00 a month, paid in lump sum, as recognition of the disruption.

The latest of these payments will have arrived with customers earlier this month.

We also committed to compensating customers for utility costs, and so we ask that customers regularly send any utility bills they receive to the Riverside Place email inbox so that we can pay these promptly and accurately.

For those of you who have contacted us to request that we buy back their home, we take each request under consideration specifically to the individual circumstances.

Our buy back policy is intended for customers facing significant financial hardship, such as a risk of bankruptcy or repossession, and the process will assess a customer’s financial circumstances in detail.

We are working with those customers who may meet these criteria. Because of the nature of each buy back request, we cannot comment specifically on the progress of any individual request.

We know some customers who have requested we buy back their home may not meet the financial criteria for a request to be accepted but have shared with us the impact the ongoing situation at Riverside Place, and the length of time they have been out of their home, is having on them.

We take this information very seriously and continue to keep these requests under review, alongside intending to put together a future resales strategy.