HOUSING chiefs will meet residents to discuss urgent repairs to one of the city’s tallest towers.

Residents demanded Canberra Tower gets a facelift and even threatened to withhold their rent unless the council take action.

As previously reported, people who live in the 144 high-rise flats have been plagued with problems including mould, flooding and lift dilemmas.

Now Southampton City Council housing boss Warwick Payne has announced he will be holding a meeting with residents at 9.30am today.

He says their concerns are a priority and he hopes to address some of the issues in the 24-storey building which they feel is falling apart.

It comes after residents claimed they were being “fobbed off” and launched a petition, signed by more than 200 people, which they will sent to the council urging them to carry out immediate repairs.

Cllr Payne said: “The main reason that I’m going to Canberra Tower is to speak to the residents face to face because I thought it was important to show just how much of a priority the council considers this to be.

“I’m no stranger to Canberra Tower, as a local ward councillor who visits quite often, but in addition to these visits I felt it was important to attempt to conduct a special meeting with residents who have raised concerns with condition and repair issues with the building.

“I would engage with repairs experts so that hopefully some of the issues that have to yet be resolved can be picked up by technical experts so the meeting is as productive as possible.”

The Labour ward councillor for Woolston previously told the Daily Echo that the council had invested £1.4 million to modernise the two lifts by 2017 and said he hoped to see the whole tower block renovated within the next few years.