Oldham building collapse: Council surveyor deemed it safe weeks before

A building in Oldham town centre collapsed just three weeks after a council surveyor said it posed 'no immediate danger', leaving three people injured and around 40 residents needing emergency accommodation. The three-storey building at 31 King Street, which housed the Euro King Mini Market and private rental flats, caved in at around 12.30pm on March 24, with five people managing to self-evacuate moments before the structural wall gave way.

The building is part-owned by Oldham councillor Kamran Ghafoor through his company KKS Investors, which has held the property since 2019. Concerns about the building's condition were raised with police and the council on March 1, but a council building assessor deemed it not to be at 'immediate risk' of collapse and referred the matter back to the landlord rather than taking emergency action.

Councillor Ghafoor claims his company engaged a structural engineer on March 2 and submitted a building notice to the council on March 9 to carry out repairs, with scaffolding erected to rebuild external walls. However, no works were carried out between the engineer's assessment and the building's sudden collapse, raising questions about what went wrong in the intervening period.

The council and Health and Safety Executive have launched a full investigation into the privately-owned building's collapse. A council spokesperson said their immediate focus is supporting those affected, with hopes that most residents outside the safety cordon can return home soon. The investigation will examine whether proper maintenance procedures were followed and what caused the sudden structural failure that injured two people requiring hospital treatment.