Housing services awash in flood-stricken Carlisle

More than £1m of damage has been done to social housing in Carlisle as the worst floods for almost 200 years devastated the region.

Sixty elderly housing association tenants have been left homeless and residents had to be evacuated by boats and helicopters after the storms last weekend.

The Environment Agency estimates that as many as 3000 buildings in Carlisle and surrounding areas, many of which are homes, have been damaged by the extreme weather conditions. Several properties are still without electricity or phone lines.

The police, Carlisle Housing Association and Carlisle council have set up an emergency shelter for residents evacuated from their homes. It has helped up to 200 people a night.

The town’s housing associations are beginning to count the cost of the floods. Northern Counties Housing Association was particularly badly hit. Forty of its sheltered housing properties for elderly people will need complete refits at an estimated cost of £1.08m.

Carlisle Housing Association, which received its 6000 homes from the council after a stock transfer in 2002, has had 534 properties damaged by the storms. Managing director Patrick Leonard said the costs would “run into hundreds of thousands of pounds”.

The association has so far had to find temporary accommodation for 18 elderly tenants whose homes have been wrecked.

A spokeswoman said: “We are working with the council to provide appropriate accommodation for the tenants left homeless, but this hasn’t been easy.”

Carlisle council has been thrown into chaos by the floods, which have made its offices unusable. It set up an emergency telephone line on Tuesday to assess the number of residents left homeless but has not yet reached a total.

Elsewhere in the country, the west coast of Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland have been hit by severe gales. The number of homes affected is not yet known but Scottish Hydro Electric said 60,000 customers had lost electricity across several parts of Scotland.