MULTI-million pound plans to replace dangerous cladding on a block of flats in Southampton have been revealed.

Residents at Empress Heights, near Ocean Village, face almost two years of work to their building should the plans submitted to Southampton City Council be approved.

It is understood that the work at the six to eight storey block of 97 privately owned flats will cost up to £10 million.

And according to documents submitted as part of the major proposal, an investigation into the safety of the building following the Grenfell fire tragedy in 2017, found the overall fire risk to the building to be high. This is due to the combustible cladding and insulation on the external walls.

A planning statement from the architectural company leading the remediation works also attributed the safety levels to "poor levels of workmanship in the vertical cavity barriers and combustible insulation in the the cladding system utilising HPL (high pressure laminate) rainscreen panels which are non-compliant with government advice".

To minimise the risk of a fire in the building, residents have been told not to smoke or light candles in their flats until the building has replacement cladding, following visits and advice from Hampshire Fire and Rescue.

The huge scale of the work may cause some disruption to the surrounding roads, the Daily Echo understands, but this will be minimised by phasing of work during the major project.

The building’s Right to Manage (RTM) company is in discussions with the initial developer and has applied for the government's Building Safety Fund.

A spokesperson for the RTM said: “Since the discovery of combustible wall materials in December 2020, we have been working tirelessly to progress this fire safety remediation project.

"We submitted a full application for government funding back in June and this planning application is another essential step towards making the building safe as soon as possible.”