East London Fire Victims Remain in Mortgage Limbo Years After Blaze

Two years in limbo: the residents still paying mortgages on flats destroyed in east London fire

Spectrum Building leaseholders awaiting payouts after freeholder, Arinium, went bankrupt shortly after 2024 blaze Sarah Williams vividly remembers the night in 2016 when she camped overnight in a car park to put down a deposit on a flat in the newly completed Spectrum Building in Dagenham, east London. “People started queuing for those flats 24 hours before they went on sale,” she said. “It was basically the only flat I could afford in London. This was a year before Grenfell, and the flats ma...

By Jessica Murray Social affairs correspondent