Resident trapped in council block lift for 40 minutes — just hours after engineers said they had fixed it

A Hackney resident has described a “terrifying” 40-minute ordeal trapped in a broken lift in their council block — just hours after engineers had supposedly carried out repairs.

The incident took place at Newcome House on Powell Road in Lower Clapton, a building made up of a mix of council and ex-council flats, and has reignited concerns about the safety and reliability of lifts in the borough’s social housing stock.

The resident, who asked not to be named, said she had been aware that engineers were working on the lift on the morning of the incident.

But after they left, no notice was put up to warn residents that the lift was still faulty. When she stepped inside later that day, the lift jerked to a halt mid-journey, leaving them stranded.

“If I had been stuck in there without a phone, I don’t know how I would’ve got out,” she said.

Fortunately she was able to call the council’s emergency repair line, which told her an engineer could be there “within the hour”. The operator also advised her to call the fire brigade — a suggestion the resident dismissed as “a total waste of their services and time”.

When engineers eventually arrived, they told the resident it had in fact been the fire brigade who had alerted them.

Hackney Council has since confirmed the breakdown was caused by a recurring fault, and said it was looking into what had gone wrong.

The resident has now lodged a formal complaint, raising concerns about the quality of the original repair, ongoing maintenance standards, safety procedures for those living in the block, and whether the council is taking reasonable care to prevent foreseeable harm.

She is also seeking compensation for the distress caused and for what she describes as repeated service failures, despite paying substantial service charges.

“Being trapped for this length of time is completely unacceptable,” she wrote. “Particularly given that the lift had already been identified as faulty and supposedly repaired earlier the same day.”

The block is home to residents with mobility issues, wheelchair users and families with young children, who rely on the lift every day to get in and out of their homes.

A Hackney Council spokesperson said: “No resident should feel unsafe in their home, and we are sorry this happened. We are aware of how distressing it must have been to be trapped in a lift, and there is a current investigation into the specific circumstances of this incident.

“Reliable, safe lifts are a necessity, particularly for residents with mobility needs or young children. All council-managed lifts are checked monthly, and we seek to respond to faults as quickly as possible, but we know some older lifts have caused real frustration for residents.

“£24 million is currently being invested to renew or replace 120 of the worst-performing lifts in our housing blocks. The first phase of the programme will start in June, with 41 priority lifts expected to be renewed or replaced by February 2027.”

The resident says she will consider taking their complaint to the Housing Ombudsman if it is not resolved satisfactorily.