Present threat to prefab homes

Residents want listed status for their homes

A collection of 30 prefabricated houses in Worcestershire are under threat of demolition.

Redditch Council is considering putting new homes in place of the wartime "prefabs" in the town's Dolphin Road.

But the people living there are threatening to chain themselves to their kitchen sinks rather than let bulldozers demolish their homes.

Thousands of prefabs were built just after the war years as a short-term solution to the national housing crisis.

Listed status

The buildings, with aluminium roofs and walls, were only meant to last for a few years but their owners say they have proved ideal homes for more than half a century.

Some people have bought their prefabs and have spent thousands of pounds renovating them.

Phil Senior moved into his prefab a month ago

Phil Senior and Anicolad Walmsley moved in to one of the prefabs with three children about a month ago.

Mr Senior told the BBC's Midlands Today programme: "If we have to move again, it's going to come out of our own pocket.

"We have got to pay for the removals. They are not going to do it are they?"

Instead of pulling the prefabs down, residents hope the council will have a change of heart and apply for listed status so the buildings can be conserved for the future.

A total of 16 two-bedroomed prefabs, which were built in Birmingham in 1945, were granted Grade II-listed status four years ago.

In Bristol, another 16 have also been saved for posterity.