Taylor Wimpey points residents elsewhere as Dudley MP demands action on “dangerous” Goodrich Mews wall

Dudley MP Sonia Kumar has criticised housebuilder Taylor Wimpey after the company declined to take responsibility for the failing retaining wall at Goodrich Mews, instead directing residents to the estate’s managing agent. 

The MP wrote to Taylor Wimpey in mid-August following an independent inspection by the British Board of Agrément (BBA), which she requested after representations from residents. 

The BBA’s assessment made a series of serious findings. It concluded that the installation and maintenance of the wall did not appear to meet the requirements of the Agrément Certificate and would therefore not have met the criteria for its stated service life. Inspectors also found that the infill material used within the wall did not appear to be suitably free draining, containing significant quantities of local material and fine particles. 

During the inspection itself, a section of timber detached from the wall without warning. The BBA concluded that the structure presents a danger to the public and requires interim propping while a permanent remediation solution is organised. 

The report also examined the repairs already carried out near residents’ parking spaces, lengths of mild steel channel fixed to the face of the wall, and found them to be a temporary measure only, with corrosion already evident and unsuitable for anything other than an emergency repair. 

Residents have lived with the consequences of the wall’s failure for years, including significant collapses in 2016 and again in December 2025. 

Sonia Kumar has been working with residents on the issue for almost two years, holding a series of meetings with those affected and pursuing extensive correspondence with the parties involved in an effort to establish who is responsible and secure a permanent fix. 

The most recent of those meetings was held on 15 August, when the MP took residents through the BBA’s findings and set out the steps she was taking on their behalf. 

In its response, received on 2 September, Taylor Wimpey said responsibility for the management and maintenance of communal areas at the development, including the retaining wall, was transferred to managing agent EPM in early 2010, and encouraged residents to contact the managing agent directly to ensure any necessary repairs are addressed promptly. 

Sonia Kumar MP said: 

“An independent inspection has found that this wall is a danger to the public and needs propping up urgently. My constituents did not need to be told to go and speak to somebody else: they needed a plan, and they needed it months ago.” 

“Residents at Goodrich Mews have been passed from one party to another since 2016 while the wall behind their homes, gardens and parking spaces has continued to fail. I have spent almost two years on this, meeting residents, writing letters, chasing answers, and the response I have now received amounts to being told it is somebody else’s problem.” 

“Whoever holds the contract for the communal areas today, these homes were built and sold by Taylor Wimpey, and the BBA’s findings go directly to how this wall was installed in the first place.” 

“I am repeating my request for an urgent meeting, and I want the managing agent in the room as well. I will keep pressing until residents have a clear answer on responsibility, a funded plan for permanent repair, and confidence that they and their families are safe.” 

The MP has written again to Taylor Wimpey and to managing agent EPM to request a joint meeting of all parties and is continuing to raise the matter on behalf of residents, including again in the House of Commons on 7th September 2026 with Matthew Pennycook, (Minister for Housing and Planning)