Kensington and Chelsea accused of pushing domestic violence victims out of London after refuge ceiling collapses

Kensington and Chelsea Council has been accused of trying to push domestic violence survivors out of London, after women living in a refuge were told to move outside the borough.

Seven women and eight children living in the property, which is owned by the Notting Hill Trust and run by domestic violence charity Hestia, were offered housing on the outskirts of the capital after a ceiling collapsed.

But the residents have refused to leave the refuge, saying they fear they will be ​“out for good” once they are housed elsewhere.

The council has insisted they will only be re-housed temporarily, saying their present refuge will be habitable shortly.

Two of the women have ex-partners who live near where they were offered housing.

One resident told The Independent that the sprinklers at the refuge were leaking and the fire alarm was going off periodically for several weeks before the ceiling gave way.

She and others had complained a number of times, but they were ignored, she said.

Now there was water coming through the power sockets and the building posed a fire risk, she said.

The residents have moved their mattresses to the ground floor so they can leave the building quickly if there is an emergency.

“If this place catches fire, the fire alarm goes off and we’re out. At least I will be safe sitting on that pavement,” the resident said.

“If I go back to that area [on the outskirts of London] I risk not only him [her former partner] killing me, but also getting back into a situation that was absolute hell.”

She added: “We’ve uprooted our lives once. We’ve made connections here, we’ve started getting help and we want our lives back.”

The incident came after the Kensington council was accused of acting with disregard for low-income families following the Grenfell Tower fire.

Police last week announced said they had “reasonable grounds” to suspect Kensington council committed corporate manslaughter.

The borough has the worst record in England for finding local homes for homeless families. As of spring this year, Kensington and Chelsea had placed 1,668 homeless households in temporary housing outside the area.

Feminist group Sisters Uncut demanded that Kensington council rehouse every resident within the borough immediately.

"The council has a shameful history of moving working class people outside London, while hundreds of social homes within the borough lie empty," it said.

"The same council oversaw the managed decline of housing stock which was a direct cause of the Grenfell Tower disaster. We condemn any form of social cleansing and will continue to fight for every survivor to have access to secure, high quality housing."

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea said in a statement: “We understand from Hestia there was a flood over the weekend that affected two flats and some residents were offered emergency places outside of the borough, by Hestia, on a temporary basis.

“Notting Hill Housing Trust (the building owner) is working to repair the building and expect the refuge to be habitable by this evening (31 July). However, we take the housing needs of domestic abuse survivors very seriously and the Housing Trust will offer local hotel accommodation, transport and other forms of support if the repairs take longer than anticipated.”

The Independent has contacted the Notting Hill Housing Trust for comment.​