Residents of Slough’s tallest block of flats have spoken of being ‘prisoners’ in their own homes or having to climb several flights of stairs in pain after both lifts broke down.

Lexington Apartments on Railway Terrace is 15 storeys tall. But residents – including those with small children or disabilities – have been left having to climb the stairs, with issues besetting the lifts for months.

One resident Dave – who has multiple health issues and uses a walking stick – says the walk to his fifth floor flat can take him 20 painful minutes. He told the Observer: “Going up, I have to stop at every flight of stairs, get air at the window, go to the next one, and just gradually work my way up.

“I’m in pain all the time anyway because I had a failed operation on my spine. I’ve got so many other medical conditions. I’ve recently had blood clots in my lungs and in my legs. It’s just terrible.”

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But he added the situation was even worse for another resident on the 13th floor with a heart condition. Dave said: “He can’t do these stairs – when the lifts aren’t there he’s a prisoner in his own apartment.”

Residents say at least one of the lifts has broken down repeatedly over a period of around eight months. More recently, the second remaining lift got stuck with people inside – meaning firefighters had to cut them loose.

That’s a fire risk as this was a firefighting lift which the fire service could use to carry equipment during an evacuation of the building which is also covered in a flammable cladding system.

The incident left residents with no way to reach their apartments except by several flights of stairs. Several residents spoke of their struggles to climb the stairs with children as young as two, three and four years old.

One resident, Sheena, said her three year old was left ‘howling in pain as her legs hurt’ after having to climb the stairs to their eighth floor flat three times a day.

Another resident said she was ‘heartbroken’ after her dad was ‘left stuck inside’ his high floor flat on his 79th birthday. She added that the family couldn’t even sell the flat due to the cladding, making them ‘prisoners in our own home with a double sentence – one because of the cladding and second because of the lift always being out of order’.

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One Housing said it ‘sincerely apologises’ to the residents for the ‘unacceptable level of service’ and said it would try to fix the issues ‘as quickly as possible’.

A spokesperson said: “Due to the repeated lift breakdowns, we had been working with the previous contractor on a service improvement plan.

“As a result of the repeated issues, we have now appointed a new contractor and will continue to manage this closely to improve the service.

“Our lift contractors were on site today [September 9] and we anticipate the lift being returned to service this week.”