Two more Canning Town towers evacuated after engineers find transfer slabs undersized and overstressed

The notices came a week after about 210 households left Centurion Tower, Sovereign Tower and St Vincent Court at 3 a.m. on October 23. Prime Property Management, the managing agent, has said the problem surfaced while building safety cases were being prepared and that an on-site check confirmed it on October 21. Friday’s notice, reported by the Evening Standard, said the slabs are “significantly overstressed,” far past the margins a design would normally carry, and that the south buildings should not be occupied.

The open question is who pays. Prime told residents to cover temporary housing themselves for now and said the right-to-manage companies would try to recover the money from third parties, which it warned will take time. Letters seen by the Standard show the development’s insurer refused accommodation claims because it treats the problem as a building defect. Families are paying for hotels and short lets. Businesses at Caxton Works have closed too, including a climbing gym that sits directly under Centurion Tower.

The Standard reported that Galliard Construction, a sister company of developer Galliard, built the blocks and finished them in 2018. Construction Enquirer gave 2017 as the completion year, for a joint venture of Cathedral Group and Galliard Homes. Evacuated residents still have no date to go home. James Asser, who represents West Ham and Beckton in Parliament, said there were serious questions about how long the fault had existed and who was responsible.