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Original poster

Grenfell ex-residents should get a 3-bed house with a garden if that's what they want

999 replies

pingodolcepo · 11/12/2017 08:23

Daily mail outrage that some of the residents are asking for a 3-bed house with a garden. But honestly, they have been through a living hell that was caused by someone else's very bad choices.

There are plenty of people in London that have a 3 bed council house, why can't these people that have dealt with horrors get one also?

I know someone that got a council house in Highgate in the 80s, was a cabbie with a good wage, bought it when offered and sold it a few years ago for over a million and now lives in a fab place with loads of land and a pool in the south of France. If plenty of normal people got houses why can't these poor residents get one? They won't ever be able to afford to buy it due to the high cost of london houses now.

OP posts:
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5
Franklin77 · 11/12/2017 12:02

JacquesHammer Well DONE on just being so much better.
Thanks! Yes, some of us don't act helpless and expect other taxpayers to fund our life, we get on with it, support ourselves and move heaven and earth to move hundreds of miles away to live according to our means and hunt for work. If you believe that makes us better, so be it.

Annorlunda5 · 11/12/2017 12:02

Franklin

I'm not sure if you realise this... but you do get people on housing benefit in the private sector.

Sanshin · 11/12/2017 12:02

No they shouldn't. They should get what's available and suitable to their needs like everyone else.

Annorlunda5 · 11/12/2017 12:05

In fact... You get people who have never worked a day in their life in the PRIVATE sector

Annorlunda5 · 11/12/2017 12:07

And when people in the private sector become homeless... They are entitled to council support for rehousing, just like council tenants.

cathf · 11/12/2017 12:07

I asked on here once if people's sympathy would wane when Grenfell residents started to turn down properties. I was rounded on by just about everyone and the whole thread was eventually taken down as it was not in the spirit, apparently.
Admittedly, that was only a few weeks after the fire, but it was not a popular view, and I suspect I know who asked for it to be taken down. She has not appeared on this thread yet, but she will.

JacquesHammer · 11/12/2017 12:12

@Franklin77

It's called sarcasm. I don't think you're better. Rather the opposite in fact.

woodhill · 11/12/2017 12:17

I agree with you Franklin and I said earlier a lot of the residents were from overseas and I wondered what sort of subsidised housing they would receive in their own countries and to what standard

Emerald92 · 11/12/2017 12:17

No of course not, they should get housing that meets their needs. I've read somewhere that they're also entitled to a £10,000-£20,000 grant. Along with the donation they will receive from the fundraiser (£18 million was raised). That's a lot more than what most people would receive.

OurMiracle1106 · 11/12/2017 12:18

They should get re housed in suitable accommodation up to at least the same specifications as they had. They should get financial assistance to re furnish and decorate their new home.

They shouldn’t get more than any other person who lost their home due to natural disaster would get though.

Kensington and Chelsea council do need to be held responsible, but this should be dealt with in courts, not by individuals

Annorlunda5 · 11/12/2017 12:19

While I agree that they shouldn't get to jump through queue, I disagree with the idea that council house tenants are lazy/don't work/have kids they cannot afford etc etc. Franklin just sounds like someone who tars them all with the same brush.

bobbyjim · 11/12/2017 12:19

we have lived locally in the area for 30 years, in a 4 bed housing trust maisonette for the last 12 years which has now become totally unsuitable for my 75 year old husband as he has parkinsons and degenerative spinal disease, and the flat is on the 1st to 3rd floors, 50 stairs inside with only a downstairs bathroom converted in the 1960s, been bidding with the council for 4 years, to downsize,tried to bid for a ground floor maisonette 2 years ago , we were no 1 on the list but told by K&C council we couldn't have it as it was medically unsuitable for him as it had 10 stairs inside , my husband then had to prove that he could mange one flight of stairs, which he can easily, but not 50, we were really gutted, went to our MP and had the step free ruling they made on my husband overturned, but by then the maisonette had gone.
The council then sent us a direct offer of a 3rd floor flat in Grenfell Tower, which luckily we refused, we rang the medical officer to ask her what my husband was supposed to do if the lift broke down in the event of a fire, she didn't answer.
Another 2 years later we are worse off than ever, the council list has been closed since the Grenfell fire, and we just had a letter this morning telling us that the residents of the surrounding estates around Grenfell area, around 2,000 residents are to be given 900 points to be rehoused, we have 700 and used to be at the top of the list 2 years ago.
I emailed the council 2 weeks ago to ask them to nominate us to another London borough for rehousing, as my husband is really struggling now with all the stairs and needs a wet room, the London Mayor runs a mobility scheme where tenants can move to another London borough for work or to downsize as we are, but surprise surprise K&C council do not participate in the scheme, and I'm still waiting for an answer to my email.
We could be giving K& C council a 4 bed property which I'm sure is badly needed, but the council will not help us move to another area, and when I go on the bidding website I can see 3 beautiful new blocks of flats completely refurbished, 1 off Kensington High St, and another off the Kings Road, which are only for the residents of Grenfell to bid for, the list is completely closed to us.
We've been to see Emma Dent Coad the new labour MP, but even she cant help us, so given up now, spoke to Social services and they said former Grenfell residents are not accepting the properties they are being offered so this will go on for a very long time.
Sorry for the long post just so frustrated and angry for my husband who has worked hard all his life, and now cannot get the help he so badly needs.

Viviennemary · 11/12/2017 12:19

I don't think there should be any council housing in Kensington and Chelsea. Because it just leads to corruption and all the sub letting and unscrupulous landlords. I think those Grenfell residents should be a priority though and why shouldn't they have gardens but not in that borough if there's hardly any.

coconuttella · 11/12/2017 12:19

I remember a week or so after Grenfell someone in a tv interview saying how it was appalling that all the residents hadn’t been found permanent local residences yet, and how incompetent, uncaring and lazy the Council was. I remember thinking at the time that was realistic as wanting a golden unicorn for Christmas but at the time it was too early to say anything...

Of course Grenfell victims should be provided with substantial re-housing support, but to expect the council to dream up 3 bed homes with gardens in K&C is preposterous. Yes, Grenfell victims derserve massive support and empathy, but those that are making such outrageous demand are not helping matters and risk finding that the public’s sympathy is finite.

Jazzybeats · 11/12/2017 12:23

Of course those in need should be provided for.
My point originally was in rebuttal to the posts that there is very little housing in K&C available. Which as my cursory research suggests is not true.

And then to those that believe there is no “magic money tree” to pay for it. Of course there is, but it only gets shaken for some!

What this government rather successfully does is divide and conquer. “Is the domestic violence victim more or less needy than the disabled or homeless”. It’s a non starter with me. All of those groups should have their needs met. And I don’t trust our politicians to accurately define those needs. Look at all the threads on PIP assessments for example.

Society is broken. Don’t you see?

coconuttella · 11/12/2017 12:24

I asked on here once if people's sympathy would wane when Grenfell residents started to turn down properties. I was rounded on by just about everyone and the whole thread was eventually taken down as it was not in the spirit, apparently.

It’s a fair question... I think there are some that wanted to turn Grenfell into the spark for a Trotskyite class war.... Making demands that were completely undeliverable, and then undermine and attack those authorities to the point of their collapse into disarray. Thankfully those who sought to harness people’s understandable fury in this way won’t be getting the revolution they seek.

cathf · 11/12/2017 12:30

Right Jazzy. I don't think anyone would disagree with your sentiments, but where is the reality?
On a practical level, even if money could be found to build nice houses for EVERYONE that needed one, where would these houses go? There's not an awful lot of spare land in K&C if I remember correctly, especially to build houses with gardens.
Sympathy, empathy and demanding is one thing, but you have not come up with any solutions as far as I can see.

C8H10N4O2 · 11/12/2017 12:34

Sorry for the long post just so frustrated and angry for my husband who has worked hard all his life, and now cannot get the help he so badly needs.

But you and the Grenfell residents are equally victims of K&C surely?

If they participated in the mobility scheme or even just engaged some common sense then swapping your maisonette for a smaller unit tagged for Grenfell would enable them to solve two housing needs. You are both suffering for the council's landlord practices.

OldPony · 11/12/2017 12:34

BobbyJim,

Why on earth didn't you plan for your old age in the 30 years that you lived in subsidized housing? Like everyone else does.
And who lived in the other bedrooms in your 4 bedroom maisonette?

FlouncyDoves · 11/12/2017 12:34

That is a remarkably over simplified argument OP.

They should be offered reasonable similar accommodation, ideally within the same borough. If they turn it down they should be treated the same as any other social tenant

C8H10N4O2 · 11/12/2017 12:35

Why on earth didn't you plan for your old age in the 30 years that you lived in subsidized housing?

Public housing is not subsidised. But I suspect you know that don't you?

woodhill · 11/12/2017 12:36

It is cheaper than private renting though

C8H10N4O2 · 11/12/2017 12:37

It is cheaper than private renting though

And your point is what? That private landlords make big profits?

unlimiteddilutingjuice · 11/12/2017 12:37

Grenfell survivors are not ordinary homeless people on the counil list and shouldn't be treated as such.
They are people who were owed a duty of care by the council and suffered horribly because the council massively failed in that duty of care.
The council now have a duty to put them into a position as close as possible to how things would be if the fire hadn't happened. That's how tort law works.
They can do it now, off their own backs or they can drag their feet and wait for Grenfell survivors to drag it out of them through the courts.

ArcheryAnnie · 11/12/2017 12:37

Why are people living for years in state-funded flats and houses

I wish people who post nonsense like this could grasp that people in council houses pay rent, ffs.