Residents had to be moved out of a Lewisham block of flats after a safety report revealed the buildings were at a “catastrophic” risk of collapse.

Lethbridge Estate, halfway between Lewisham and Greenwich, was the subject of a structural robustness assessment in the wake of safety concerns following Grenfell.

In this case the fear was not around fire, but around what would happen in the case of a gas explosion.

The safety report was compiled after a similar report at the Ledbury Estate flats in Southwark showed that the buildings could collapse in the result of a case explosion.

Danielle Gregory is from the Ledbury Action Group and lived in those flats, where they had to turn off the gas in response to the safety report, leaving them without heating heading into the winter months.

She told News Shopper: “We had cracks in our walls so after Grenfell we had them checked by engineers on site.”

“After the Ronan Point collapse in Newham in 1968, unless the building can withstand certain large pressures it is deemed not safe, so the gas supply was turned off in our estate.

“Leaving the gas supply on would put lives at catastrophic risk.”

Other site owners started to conduct safety inspections on their flats, such as Lewisham Homes who got building assessors Arup to inspect Lethbridge Estate.

The verdict? In the report’s own words: “The buildings do not fully comply with the recommendations for the prevention of disproportionate collapse in the event of a piped gas explosion.

“A severe event such as a gas explosion could lead to the disproportionate collapse of the building.”

Arup’s recommendation was that the only way to completely eliminate the risk of collapse would be to remove the gas supply completely.

This meant Lewisham Homes had to act fast. Arup said in the report that Lewisham Homes had “accelerated the rehousing of residents”.

The gas was not turned off straight away, but all the residents started being rehomed and were finally all out by the end of February earlier this year.

Now the old buildings, built in the late 1960’s, are empty and are set to be demolished later this year.

A Lewisham Council spokesperson said: “We have worked with structural surveyors to ensure that the remaining Lethbridge Close residents were safe whilst we moved them into new homes during the final phase of our £270million estate regeneration scheme.

“The gas supply has been disconnected from the building in preparation for the planned demolition.”