WHY ARE MILLIONS STILL HAVING TO LIVE IN FEAR?
Earlier this month, a 19-storey tower block in east London caught fire – bringing back chilling memories of the horrific blaze at Grenfell Tower that killed 72 people and injured many more almost four years ago.
The latest blaze took 100 firefighters two and a half hours to extinguish. Fortunately, no one died, but people were left homeless due to the extent of the damage. Work had started just two weeks previously to strip the dangerous cladding following on from the Grenfell inquiry, which revealed how this had sped up the inferno. It has been reported that the cladding itself did not combust and played no part in the fire in east London.
Martin Boyd from Leasehold Knowledge Partnership told Closer that an estimated 2.8million flats across the UK now have fire safety issues. However, many residents can’t afford to move out as potential buyers can’t get a mortgage due to the cladding issue. Even though you can apply for a grant to remove the cladding on certain buildings, others are excluded, and all the fire safety costs aren’t met. The limbo has had an appalling impact – in a recent survey by the UK Cladding Action Group, 23% of all leaseholders living in cladded buildings have considered suicide or self harm and 90% reported their mental health had deteriorated. Closer speaks to Sawsan Choucair, whose family died in the Grenfell Tower disaster, about why the recent blaze is a heartbreaking reminder that so much more needs to be done…