We must retrofit sprinklers in all high-rise blocks
Corbyn calls for Budget cash
JEREMY Corbyn will today call for all council tower blocks to be retrofitted with sprinklers.
The Labour leader will urge the Chancellor to set aside £1billion in next month’s Budget to prevent a repeat of the Grenfell tragedy.
Launching a campaign to install the measures, starting with social housing 10 storeys or higher, Mr Corbyn will say: “The Grenfell Tower fire was an entirely avoidable human disaster. The Government is failing to learn the lessons. I urge the Chancellor to use the Budget to provide the funds needed to retrofit sprinklers.”
The Grenfell inferno in June claimed at least 69 lives but still only 2% of our 4,000 tower blocks have sprinklers.
Independent research shows they contain or extinguish fires in 99% of cases and London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton backs retrofitting, saying: “This can’t be optional.”
But Nottingham city council had its bid for £6million of work refused in September, while Salford council said the Government was “failing to live up to its responsibility” by refusing cash. At the Tory conference, Theresa May said ministers would work with local authorities to make tower blocks safe. But asked about sprinkler funding, the PM said there was “not just one answer”.
GRENFELL Tower was an avoidable scandal, as is the Government’s failure to fit potentially life-saving sprinklers to the high-rise homes of one million people.
Jeremy Corbyn’s challenge to Chancellor Philip Hammond, to come up with £1billion in this month’s Budget to install the systems, shames the disinterested Conservatives.
Politics boils down to priorities and which side a party is on, damning an inaction that leaves some 4,000 blocks potential death traps.
Grenfell is a warning of the fatal danger of resisting change for the better. We demand the sprinklers are installed now. We want Theresa May to show the political will to save lives.