Seven Sisters block evacuated due to water leak

One of the iconic Seven Sisters tower blocks in Rochdale has been evacuated due to a burst water pipe. Mitchell Hey block residents have been moved from their homes by social housing landlord Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) after the major leak was identified earlier this month.

One of the iconic Seven Sisters tower blocks in Rochdale has been evacuated due to a burst water pipe. Mitchell Hey block residents have been moved from their homes by social housing landlord Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) after the major leak was identified earlier this month.

The ‘hazardous’ pipe leak meant no water supply could be provided to the building – so RBH had to move everyone out. Only seven out of 120 flats in the block were occupied, so those tenants have been put up in the 4-star Mercure Manchester Norton Grange Hotel in Castleton temporarily.

It remains unknown how long it will take to fix the problem or when residents could be returned to their homes.

The housing provider says the pipe is around 60 years old and requires specialist contractors to carry out repair work. No such contractor has been found so far, leaving residents in the lurch without an end in sight.

Residents have been battling with RBH for years over what the future holds for the Seven Sisters blocks, actually named College Bank. Mark Slater, a lead member of the Save the Seven Sisters campaign group, says this is another example of how RBH have overseen a ‘managed decline’ of the flats.

He said: “The tenants from Mitchell Hey have been moved to a local hotel until it is resolved, we are expecting them to be suitably accommodated until the situation is resolved and they can return home. This is of course another example of the issues caused by the managed decline and lack of cyclical maintenance on the blocks by RBH since 2012.”

‘Managed decline’ is a strategic plan to run down an asset near the end of its life cycle in order to minimise costs down the road – something RBH has repeatedly rejected doing with College Bank.

Hannah Fleming, RBH director of regeneration and development, said: “We understand how difficult, upsetting and uncertain the past three weeks have been for our Mitchell Hey customers, and we want to say how truly sorry we are for the stress and disruption they have experienced.

“In the first week of March there was a leak in a major water pipe at Mitchell Hey which takes water from the bottom of the building to the top, and supplies water to the flats. The water supply cannot be restored until the pipe is fixed.

“This is a complex repair on a 1960s pipe, which is in a constrained space close to ventilation and drainage pipes. Only a specialist contractor can carry out the work.

“We have approached a number of contractors but have not found one able or willing to undertake this work. Any repairs will require the consent of the Building Safety Regulator, as Mitchell Hey is a high rise building and carries additional regulation.

“The ongoing water supply issues are also categorised as Category 1 – the highest level of hazard – under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). This means that people cannot live safely in the building.

“Of the 120 flats within Mitchell Hey, there are seven households living there, who have been housed in a nearby hotel since the leak was discovered. We are in regular contact with all affected customers and we are providing tailored support for each of them.

“Our customers’ safety and wellbeing has been, and remains, at the heart of every decision we have made in relation to College Bank.”

This latest development comes as RBH is in the process of moving all 229 households out of the flats. In October 2025 RBH issued a letter to all tenants saying they need to evict all residents due to a number of safety issues flagged in a building survey.

Structural and electrical issues; problems with the water pumping system; roof damage; and the ever-increasing costs for customers to heat and light their homes were all raised in the surveys. The tower blocks, built in the 1960s, will have more problems as they continue to age, according to RBH.

A number of residents have already moved out, which means the blocks will be less than one third full now.

This move to oust all residents, and the latest to evacuate the Mitchell Hey tenants, has all been seen as too convenient by the more skeptical folk in College Bank. Many living in the Seven Sisters have been embroiled in a battle against demolition of the blocks for a decade.

Most living there would have considered it a happy community to live in, but in 2017, RBH revealed plans to demolish four of the high-rises and redevelop. This sparked local backlash, with local campaigners fighting to stop the plans.

Although demolition was eventually ruled out in 2023, a shocking twist in the tale came the following year when RBH put ‘all options back on the table’.

After coming out of an ‘exclusivity agreement’ with Legal and General, which looked into a cost-effective way to refurbish Mitchell Hey, Dunkirk Rise, Tentercroft and Town Mill Brow tower blocks, the social housing operator refused to rule out razing them to the ground.

This put the ‘Save the Seven Sisters’ group (ST7S) right back to where they started in 2017. The ST7S campaign says the local consensus remains that demolition of their blocks isn’t supported.

RBH says no decision on the potential demolition of the tower blocks has been made. All of the options being explored, including refurbishment, will require customers to move out of their homes while any works take place, due to ageing of the blocks, according to RBH.