Urgent action on roof repairs to Sheffield council flat blocks hit by high winds

Repairs to roofs of Sheffield council homes badly damaged by storms last winter will be prioritised as urgent.

The roofs of seven blocks of maisonettes in Haslam Crescent, Lowedges were damaged by high winds during Storm Pia in December 2023, followed by more destruction caused when Storm Jocelyn hit Sheffield a month later.

Sections of roof were dislodged on the blocks and three of them were identified in February as needing particularly urgent repairs.

Sheffield was again hit by high winds in Storm Lilian early this morning (August 2024).

A meeting of Sheffield City Council’s finance and performance policy committee this week (August 19) approved a move of £610,000 from one budget to another to fund the most serious roof repairs.

A report to the committee said that the work is too urgent to wait until work is carried out on the roofs of 5,000 council properties, as well as the installation of insulation and photovoltaic roof panels to capture solar energy.

Council maintenance staff have ensured that the damage has been made safe, said the report.

It added: “However, these roofs are in urgent need of repair and it is not considered viable for these properties to be completed under the main roofing replacement programme 2024-2029 scheme, as a contractor will not be available for at least six months and there would be a risk of further damage during this period”.

The total budget for the entire citywide reroofing programme is £46.7m, of which £3.01m is set to be spent in the current 2024/25 financial year.