flats

She said its flats wouldn't be dried out until Christmas, meaning building work was unable to start until February and affected residents having to either stay with family or in hotels or B&Bs.

There are individual owners of flats, then a residential management company, and then the landlord - or head lessor - above them.

Officers could be seen inside the building, which contains 59 bedrooms split across multiple flats, while vehicles including a forensic services van were parked outside.

The blaze started accidentally on the second floor of a three-storey block, two flats were heavily damaged by fire and several more were smoke-logged, the West Midlands Fire Service said.

But the Home Office has also sought to bring down the immediate costs of hotels and other types of accommodation, like private flats.