More than £15m has been pledged towards the demolition of two 17-storey tower blocks in Barking.

Barking and Dagenham Council will now begin asking residents living in Colne House and Mersea House for their opinions on the future of their homes as part of a community consultation.

Saima Ashraf, cabinet member for community leadership and engagement, said the council aims to "open the conversation" and ask residents for their views on the options, which range from refurbishing homes to knocking them down and eventually delivering more than 1,700 new ones.

The two tower blocks are part of Barking’s Harts Lane Estate, which was built shortly after the Cape Asbestos factory closed in 1968 amid growing public health concerns surrounding asbestos.

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The buildings, which are located on the same site as the asbestos factory, were found to be covered in combustible cladding with further investigations finding issues with some of the construction-related fire precautions.

The council has since provided extra smoke and heat detectors and fire alarms as well as a waking watch – where fire wardens patrol corridors 24 hours a day – but cladding still covers residents’ homes today.

A cabinet report revealed the council would need to find around £38.3m to carry out all of the works needed to make the block safe and this would not be completed until mid-2027.

The council argues the works will cause "significant disruption" to residents’ lives as they would need to be decanted from their homes.

The costs had also not been budgeted by the council in its Housing Revenue Account business plan and so the council is now looking at other options to deal with the cladding issue – though its preferred option is to demolish the buildings.

Cllr Ashraf, who is deputy council leader, told cabinet members on October 15: “We know rules have changed, legislation has changed but primarily the residents’ safety is the key of everything we do.

“What we’re trying to do is to make sure our residents have a quality of life that is a respectable and decent quality of life – but at the same time is almost making sure the cost of that development and everything that we want to do is also relevant and also adequate.”

She added: “There are no decisions made here [about the actual demolition of the blocks], what we’re trying to do again is about the consultation and engagement with our residents.”

If the demolition does happen, it would take around two years to do – though it is not clear from reports and the meeting where exactly existing residents would go.

However the £15.4m earmarked for the demolition proposal does include money for potential leaseholder and home loss payments, which are subject to the outcome of the community consultation.

Councillor Elizabeth Kangethe said: “I’m glad that we’re going into consultations involving the most important people which are the residents and at the same time we’ve put the safety of the residents at the heart of everything.

“We do not want to wait until there is a disaster and then we start getting all these complaints, so I support the idea of going into consultation with residents.”

Cabinet members proceeded to agree the recommendations of the report and a community consultation is to begin with residents.