Order will go out to leave immediately if 70s tower blocks are deemed unsafe
Sources say action will be taken if risk factors are found as £5m fund is set up for Grenfell survivors
THERESA MAY is poised to order the evacuation of Seventies tower blocks if they are believed to be unsafe, it has emerged, as she announced a £5million fund for those left homeless by the Grenfell fire disaster.
The Government has ordered a review of fire safety at 4,000 older tower blocks – housing more than 100,000 people – which do not have sprinklers or fire escapes.
Some blocks have the same type of cladding that is suspected of allowing the Grenfell Tower fire to spread so quickly throughout the building.
The Prime Minister is receiving constant updates on the cause of the in- ferno, which has now claimed at least 30 lives, and Downing Street promised to “do what is required” to ensure people’s safety.
Mrs May unveiled a £5million package to help people who lived at Grenfell Tower, which housed 120 families, after holding a two-hour emergency meeting yesterday.
She described the “horrific” suffering of victims she met during a visit to a hospital in west London in the morning, saying that they had been “left with nothing”.
The Government fund, to be distributed by councils, will be used to cover the costs of clothing, food and emergency supplies.
Ministers have also committed to rehousing all of the surviving residents, but admitted that some may be placed in other boroughs. Mrs May said: “The individual stories I heard at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital were horrific. I spoke with people who ran from the fire in only the clothes they were wearing.
“They have been left with nothing – no bank cards, no money, no means of caring for their children or relatives. One woman told me she had escaped in only her top and underwear.
“The package of support I’m announcing is to give the victims the immediate support they need to care for themselves and for loved ones.
“We will continue to look at what more needs to be done.”
Mrs May met residents in the afternoon, but faced fierce criticism for taking more than two days to do so. Senior Conservatives said that her delay in meeting residents from the disaster could become a “defining moment” for her leadership.
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, visited the scene on Thursday where he hugged one resident and met with survivors.
One senior Conservative told The Daily Telegraph: “I worry that the contrast between May and Corbyn reacting to this could be a defining moment in people’s view of them.
“She has been hopelessly, hopelessly trumped by Corbyn. She lacks empathy, she doesn’t know how to emote.”
The comments came after Michael Portillo, a former Tory Cabinet minister, accused Mrs May of lacking “humanity” in her response. Concerns about other tower blocks arose after Sajid Javid, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, admitted he would be “worried” about putting his children to bed in a similar high-rise building.
Mr Javid was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Would you sleep easily tonight if you lived in the sort of Grenfell Tower building that exists all over the country?
“Would you put your children to bed thinking, ‘I wonder if they will be safe tonight?’”
He replied: “I think any human being would be worried. From the moment they heard about that fire, waking up that morning, they would be immediately worried about their families.”
Asked whether Seventies tower blocks should be knocked down because they were “inherently unsafe”, Mr Javid said: “We need to act immediately, we need to do whatever it takes to make the properties safe.”
Bob Blackman, a Tory MP, called for the immediate evacuation of buildings that are found to be death traps, saying: “Get them out now. Let’s not put anyone else at risk.”
Mr Blackman, who served on the local government select committee, said: “I don’t think it’s right that people should continue living in these buildings.
“We now know that if you have the same set of circumstances and we have a tower block with a similar design, or cladding of a similar type, it’s just a recipe for disaster. There has to be an emergency programme of establishing how many tower blocks there are and people have to be vacated.”
Whitehall sources said if there was a risk that other buildings had the same combination of factors that caused the Grenfell fire, residents were likely to be temporarily removed from their homes.