Volunteer force boost relief effort
their blog in November: “We firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord.”
It was politicised when Theresa May’s new chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, failed during his time as housing minister to publish the report on updating building fire regulations that followed the horrific blaze at Lakanal House in Southwark, London, in 2009.
And it was politicised when Tory MPs – 39 per cent of whom are private landlords – voted down legislation proposed by Labour to protect tenants.
Chillingly, these MPs actually voted against the idea that homes should be “fit for human habitation”, treating ordinary people like animals.
With cuts to firefighters, hospitals, mental health services, legal aid, every service that will be needed by tenants in the months to come, there is no doubt the Grenfell disaster is austerity’s legacy, several times over.
For what? For a deficit that didn’t even come down?
On Wednesday morning, the man who wrote that prescient blog post, Edward Daffarn, came within seconds of death in his flat on the 16th floor.
After all his warnings, no fire alarm went off, he said, adding: “I heard my neighbours’ smoke alarm about 1am and thought they were making toast.”
Campaigner Pilgrim Tucker went to multiple meetings of the Grenfell Tenants Action Group. She said: “It was obvious the standard of the regeneration was extremely shoddy.
“It was profit before people. Residents were complaining about hot pipes sticking out of walls, boilers blocking doorways, power surges not looked into, emergency lighting failures.
“Residents had to refuse the contractors access to their flats to get listened to.
“The same residents were actually threatened with legal action for demanding safety works take place.
“These are the ordinary people REPORTERS Patrick Hill, Rod McPhee, Amanda Killelea, Ros Wynne-Jones, Martin Bagot, Louie Smith, Andy Lines, Ben Rossington, Martin Fricker, Nicola Bartlett, Matt Young
Phil Harris, Adam Gerrard, Roland Leon of Kensington. They aren’t the Camerons. Because of the legal aid cuts they couldn’t get lawyers.”
Britain’s housing crisis is often mistaken for a shortage of homes. It is also about the scandal of part-privatisation, a culture of corporate greed, cuts and quick fixes, and the removal of tenants’ rights.
It’s about years of cuts to council budgets, and how regeneration is being used to socially cleanse affluent parts of the capital.
Ordinary people in these areas have had to start organising in their own defence – a major factor in Kensington’s election result, turning Labour last week.
This might yet be Britain’s Hurricane Katrina – the moment when a country decides working class lives matter. That all lives matter.
But let’s be clear that’s a moment far, far too late for Grenfell’s families now.
Why were residents ignored? Because they were poor, or didn’t count? ROS WYNNE-JONES
IT LOOKED like a refugee camp but the chaos was organised. The donations seemed unending and the volunteers gave from the heart.
In the shadows of gutted Grenfell Tower, 500 people came together by an underpass in Kensington to ensure the homeless survivors of the fire want for nothing.
Vans, pick-ups, lorries and taxi cabs queued to take clothes, food, basic essentials, toys, phones and mattresses to storage depots, ready to be distributed.
The relief effort was organised by charities such as the Red Cross and Islamic Relief plus local churches.
The volunteers included singer Rita Ora, who helped sort donations. She said: “This is my neighbourhood.
“I used to play in that block, I want to do all I can to help.
“My prayers are with everybody involved.”