Housing boss gives major update on demolition of three Sunderland tower blocks as residents lose homes

Earlier this year housing association Gentoo confirmed its decision to bulldoze Lambton, Londonderry and Lumley Towers in Sunderland’s East End to avoid large repair costs.

The housing association had considered “strengthening works” at the cost of around “£15 million per building” along with additional “planned investment and fire safety improvements” costing £5 million.

However it ultimately opted for demolition instead at a cost of “£2.6 million per tower block”.

Gentoo noted structural investigations started on the ‘3Ls’ back in November, 2023, and that the decision to demolish the buildings was made in August, 2025.

This followed consultation with affected residents and work is ongoing to support tenants into alternative homes, with the housing association setting up a customer portal to provide information on plans for the tower blocks.

It was stated the process for rehousing residents was expected to take years, although individual housing needs assessments were expected to be completed by October, 2025, to inform the process.

At the latest meeting of Sunderland City Council’s East Sunderland Area committee (on Monday, December 1), representatives from the housing association provided an update on work to rehouse residents.

Steven Gordon, neighbourhoods operations manager at Gentoo, said they were pleased to confirm they are continuing to work with customers in supporting them in their move to new homes.

He said: “We’re now starting to move customers out, we’ve moved our first four out in the last couple of weeks and we have over 40 customers who have now accepted an offer of a property going forward.”

Councillor Michael Dixon, St Michael’s ward representative, asked how Gentoo was managing with the logistics of “rehousing so many people in an area where they want to live” – especially given housing waiting lists.

Mr Gordon responded by noting prior to the decision being made to demolish the three towers they “held a number of properties back” in areas where they felt customers may have been interested.

He noted this came as if the decision had been taken to instead carry out repairs they still would have had to remove customers from the towers, and then move them back in.

Mr Gordon continued: “We retained a large number of properties that we now stand to offer to the customers, and we profiled where properties become empty.

“We’re confident in that timeframe that we will have the customers rehoused.

“It’s not just the East End, Hendon, city centre areas that customers are asking for, they surprised us a little bit when we did the consultation, there’s quite a few people who are interested in different parts of the city as well.”

The previous East Area Committee meeting in September also saw several councillors question the Gentoo boss on how the demolition and rehousing scheme would impact access to social housing in the city centre.

More information about plans for Lambton, Londonderry and Lumley Towers can be found via Gentoo’s website: www.gentoogroup.com/the-3ls-customer-portal.