A housing developer has apologised after the side of one of its homes collapsed into the street this week.

Tile cladding from the house in Harvest Drive, Loves Farm, built by Persimmon Homes, came crashing down at 8pm on Tuesday (April 21).

Simon McDonald, deputy managing director for Persimmon Homes East Midlands, said the company sent its construction and health and safety team to address the issue first thing yesterday (Wednesday) morning.

“The cause was identified and we will be addressing the property effected and all other properties on the site as soon as possible.

“We would like to apologise to our customers for any inconvenience that has been caused.”

Mr McDonald said a structural engineer would visit today (Thursday).

No one was hurt but the owner of the property told neighbour Jamie Dickinson that if it had been five minutes earlier, it could have been a very different story, as he keeps his wheelie bins against the wall where the cladding came away and had moved them just before the fall.

Mr Dickinson, 44, said: “I heard a huge crash. It sounded like a tipper truck dumping a load of aggregate, which seemed odd at that time of the night.

“It was so loud everyone came rushing out to take a look.”

The new-build is clad with vertical hanging tiles, similar in appearance to roof tiles, which cover the entire second storey of the house.

Huntingdonshire District Council’s principal building control officer Chris Knight visited the property yesterday (Wednesday) and said scaffolding would be going up. He added: “We’ll be keeping an eye on the property, but once the scaffolding is up and it’s safe, that’s the end of my involvement.”