Hundreds of residents are to be moved out of their council homes in Aberdeen after they were found to contain potentially dangerous concrete panels.
Around 500 homes in the city’s Balnagask area were identified as having reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) panels following an inspection last year, including 364 council properties of which 299 are occupied by tenants.
Aberdeen City Council said it received an independent structural engineers’ report on 22 February with a recommendation to relocate council tenants to alternative accommodation “as soon as possible”.
The council said officers are “currently exploring options for the long-term viability for the site, which include remedial works or demolition”.
A detailed appraisal is expected to be presented to the council within six months.
The findings were considered by the local authority’s urgent business committee on Thursday.
Councillors accepted a recommendation from officers that tenants be permanently rehomed.
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The committee asked officers to be available to engage with council tenants to “understand their individual needs and to support them through the next steps”.
The local authority said it has written to council tenants, inviting them to meet with a housing and support officer in their home.
Owners and private tenants have also been contacted and offered support to discuss their housing options.
The committee agreed to set aside an initial £3m to cover the rehoming programme.
Councillor Miranda Radley said: “This is an incredibly difficult situation for everyone living in a RAAC affected property, but the council will be doing everything we can to support our tenants during this hugely challenging time.
“These are people’s homes and we need to ensure we support our tenants, but also engage with owners and privately rented tenants, to keep them informed on this matter.”
What is the problem with RAAC?
RAAC is a cheap, lightweight, “bubbly” material that was used in construction between the 1950s and 1990s.
It was mostly used for flat roofs – but also in walls and floors.
In the 1990s, structural engineers discovered that the strength of RAAC wasn’t standing the test of time and only had a lifespan of around 30 years – putting buildings at risk of collapse.
Detective Superintendent Lewis Hughes said they were looking at four crime scenes in Salford and the Greater Manchester area.
The human remains discovered over the last two days were found at Salford’s Blackleach Reservoir and Linnyshaw Colliery Wood.
Officers had already identified the two scenes before the remains were found and were “on route to the Colliery Wood” when a member of the public called to say they had found a package, said Det Supt Hughes.
Police officers found the other remains at the reservoir today while searching the area.
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“We are very confident it is the same victim,” Det Supt Hughes added.
The victim is believed to have died in late March.
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Police are searching a warehouse in Bury where “items were stored after this incident without the knowledge of occupants of that warehouse,” said Det Supt Hughes.
They’re also searching a house in Winton where the victim “was believed to have lived with the two men in custody”.
Two men, aged 42 and 68, from Salford, who are believed to be known to each other, were arrested on suspicion of murder on 25 April, GMP said, after officers trawled through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage.
The 42-year-old was arrested after officers stormed a bus in Eccles Old Road around midday, the force said.
The other man was later arrested at an address in Worsley Road.
A 20-year-old man previously arrested on suspicion of murder was later released on bail pending further inquiries.
“It is too soon to rule out [looking for other suspects] but we’re confident at this time that we have the right two suspects in custody,” said Det Supt Hughes.
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Detectives are still appealing the public for any information related to the crime and want to hear from witnesses, including dog walkers, who were in the area between 6am and 6pm on the day a passer-by made the original grim discovery.
More than 100 officers searched the Kersal Dale area for 12 days looking for evidence, working with an underwater search team and dogs before lifting the crime scene on 17 April.
The number of migrants that have crossed the Channel in small boats during the first four months of the year is at its highest ever level.
Some 7,167 people have arrived on UK shores after travelling by small boat from the continent between 1 January to 27 April, with 902 entering just this past week
This compares to 5,745 for the same period last year. The previous record was 6,691 in 2022.
The figures come after Rishi Sunak has staked much of his political future on getting the number of migrant boat crossings down.
On Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme he said migrants travelling to Ireland after arriving in the UK on small boats was a sign the Rwanda scheme was already working as a deterrent.
“People are worried about coming here and that demonstrates exactly what I’m saying,” he told Sky News.
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“If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay there, they are much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”
However, the news that migrants are crossing from Northern Ireland into the Republic has sparked an outcry in the country, and prompted the government in Dublin to announce they are planning emergency legislation to send asylum seekers back to Britain.
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More than 80% of recent arrivals in the republic came via the land border with Northern Ireland, Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee last week.
Stopping the boats was one of the government’s five priorities set out by the prime minister after he took office in 2023.
The latest figures have been seized upon by Labour, with shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock saying: “This is the blunt reality behind all of Rishi Sunak’s empty boasts: more people have arrived by small boats so far this year than ever before and more people are having to be rescued.
“What will it take for Rishi Sunak to wake up and realise that his plan is not working?
“We desperately need a Labour government in place to get a grip of this issue.
“Our plan would strengthen Britain’s border security, crush the smuggling gangs, clear the asylum backlog, end hotel use, and set up a new returns and enforcement unit so those with no right to be in the UK are swiftly returned.”
Ireland is pledging emergency legislation enabling it to send asylum seekers back to the UK.
More than 80% of recent arrivals in the republic came via the land border with Northern Ireland, Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee last week.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister has said the threat of deportation to Rwanda is causing migrants to head for Ireland instead of the UK.
Micheal Martin said the policy was already affecting Ireland because people are “fearful” of staying in the UK.
The former taoiseach told The Daily Telegraph: “Maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have.”
Simon Harris, Ireland’s latest leader, has asked Ms McEntee to “bring proposals to cabinet to amend existing law regarding the designation of safe ‘third countries’ and allowing the return of inadmissible international protection applicants to the UK”, a spokesman said.
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Ms McEntee said she will be meeting UK Home Secretary James Cleverly in London on Monday.
“There are many reasons why we have seen an increase in migration towards Ireland,” she told RTE.
“My focus as minister for justice is making sure that we have an effective immigration structure and system.
“That’s why I’m introducing fast processing, that’s why I’ll have emergency legislation at cabinet this week to make sure that we can effectively return people to the UK, and that’s why I’ll be meeting with the home secretary to raise these issues on Monday.”
People are now “worried” about coming to the UK, Rishi Sunak has said.
He told Sky News: “If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay here, they are much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”
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Are migrants fleeing from UK to Ireland?
Mr Sunak said the comments from Irish politicians show that “illegal migration is a global challenge”.
“[That] is why you’re seeing multiple countries talk about doing third country partnerships, looking at novel ways to solve this problem, and I believe [they] will follow where the UK has led,” he said.
Shadow minister Wes Streeting said it was unlikely a Labour government would bring people back from Rwanda if some are sent there.
“Once people are settled in Rwanda, they’re settled in Rwanda,” he told Sky News, adding it was doubtful that Labour would “unpick that situation”.
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Regarding illegal migration in general, he said it required “putting the money that’s gone to Rwanda into the National Crime Agency so we can have proper cross-border policing to tackle the criminal gangs, speeding up the processing of decision-making, making sure we’ve got serious returns agreements with other countries”.