Is the government really going to leave people in these Grenfell-style blocks?

[Eastie77]

Very sad to see a block of flats close to me erupt in flames today. It took 125 firefighters to bring it under control. It is of course fitted with Grenfell style cladding and residents cannot afford the huge bill to remove it.

I don't understand how developers can be let of the hook like this or how any government can leave people in these death traps. Surely it's only a matter of time before there are casualties on the scale we saw at Grenfell?

I hadn’t heard about the new fire. But I absolutely cannot get my head round how the residents are responsible for the bill. If I lived one one of those now worthless flats, I’d be so beside myself with anger that I don’t know how I’d cope. Which I think probably a lot of residents aren’t coping. It’s such a huge fuck you from all the people in power and with money.

Its crazy. How can trading standards legislation apply to everything except this?

Of course they will. Because not one of them has ever had to make an unsafe choice through lack of money in their own lives. Anything from cab home on a night out to move from the towering inferno.

The PM won't even consider John Lewis the over privileged wanker.

The firms and people that profited from the cladding being put there need to pay for it’s removal. Not the government, not the residents.
The government does need to make the above happen. However this conservative government wouldn’t dream of holding a company to account (might set a precedent that they too also ought to be held to account).

@SwanShaped it's a block in East London. I didn't realise what was happening myself until I saw the swirling smoke. My neighbours relative was in a nearby block and had to be rescued as the smoke spread so quickly. Terrifying.

The leaseholders in the block have to pay £3 million between them to remove the cladding. The developers have 'offered' to pay £500k if the government picks up the rest of the bill of £8 million.

Go on the hartlepool thread and you'd think johnson was the second coming. Funny how none of them are on this thread bigging him up

The government don’t give a shiny shit about it. And we’ve just handed them several more years in power oh how they must be laughing.

They can do whatever they want 🤬

Agreed, it is absolutely disgusting and shocking.

Yes I live in a block the same height as Grenfell except we are wider across than that block so bigger. It's completely cladded.
After Grenfell our cladding was scored out of 3 Grenfell was 1 we are a 2. So therefor our cladding stays on. Disgraceful!

I can’t even comprehend it. It’s so bad.

It is a national disgrace that people are left in unsafe buildings.
It is so obvious that it is impossible for tenants and leaseholders to foot an enormous bill to make themselves safe, so another Grenfell could happen at any time and nothing is being done about it

The leaseholders and tenants are in an impossible position.
I expect many of us have asked ourselves what on earth could we do, if we were stuck in that way.

I would be tempted to organise with all the residents to clear the building and then burn the wretched places to the ground.

Relatives and friends, and maybe community and religious organisations could help with clearing and storage. People would then have to be safely rehoused.
It would only take a couple of these events for the companies and the government miraculously to find the money to remove the unsafe cladding on other buildings.

Before anyone jumps down my throat I AM NOT SUGGESTING THIS, IT IS JUST A FANTASY.
Do NOT clear out your unsafely clad tower blocks and set fire to them.

I just hope and pray that sanity prevails and they foot the bill to:make people safe, instead of ooh, I don't know, installing a new high speed rail link or making more costly London projects.

It’s a joke: building regs, trading standards, outright negligence etc...

It’s playing with peoples lives. Yes the developers et al should be made to pay but the government need to get the cladding off now and billing them, complete with late payment fees. Better for people’s lives, the worry alone if living in a cladding block is cruel and better to prevent companies playing fast and loose with peoples lives if they have to face the music.

But yeah Johnson has really handled that pandemic. Wonder if anyone paying for his wallpaper builds tall towers.

Yes. They'll leave them to die. Those are poor people.

There's a block in our town that they've only just realised has un-safe cladding .

This

@Tehmina23 I had seen those, but not exactly surprised. I cannot understand the moral compass of a politician. I’m no angel but I can’t imagine sleeping at nights knowing I was putting peoples life at risk.

I can’t imagine sleeping at nights knowing I was putting peoples life at risk.

That's because you're a human being. I bet the Tories sleep like babies.

This is a terrible situation, but it’s not the role of the government to pay to fix this - unfortunately it is a matter for the leaseholders/freeholder and the developers.

People who own their own homes are already pretty far up the social pecking order, so you think we should be spending taxpayers money on them over, for example, women in refuges, or rough sleepers?

@GreenWillow I don’t think it’s the responsibility to pay to fix this, I am very clear that money should be paid by the companies that used it. But seeing as they aren’t forthcoming the government should step in now and recoup the cost, which they will find easier than thousands of individuals.

The Tories have never cared about anyone except those with money. They have never been in a position like this so they dont even think about it. They are so out of touch with us all they dont understand that they are public servants. It's all a grab for cash.

Society is becoming more selfish and this is encouraged by the way the government is.

Its not just the cladding,
There should have been - but there wasn't - a 'wet riser' taking firefighting water to the top of the tower.
The fireman's lift should have worked - but it didn't.
The window glass should not have been set in plastic which melted at 50 degrees - much cooler than a cup of tea or coffee.
'Containment' failed - and so the fire authority's 'stay put' advice should have been abandoned - soon after the cladding caught fire.
Apartment front doors should have closed automatically once residents fled - but they didn't.

[quote Unsuremover]@GreenWillow I don’t think it’s the responsibility to pay to fix this, I am very clear that money should be paid by the companies that used it. But seeing as they aren’t forthcoming the government should step in now and recoup the cost, which they will find easier than thousands of individuals.[/quote]
I think part of the problem is that many of the developers have either gone bust, or ‘rebranded’ themselves to distance themselves from this situation.

It’s not as simple as just recouping the money.

Awful as it is, the principle of caveat emptor applies here. As harsh as that may be.

Millions of pounds to subsidise big companies with furlough and Eat Out to Help Out. No money to stop people living in literal tinder boxes. Fuck this government.

Of course they will - it’s not harming their votes.