London Fire: Grenfell Tower thread five

[RhythmAndStealth]

RIP

Five victims officially named
At least 79 victims expected, possibly more
Many displaced and struggling

To all those affected and all those helping

Thread four
Thread three
Thread three contains links to threads one and two.

Let's hope they can find something equally as good for the other households. 68 flats will only house just over half of the affected households, obviously excluding fatalities

Bit more info on the BBC site now:

"The upmarket Kensington Row complex includes a 24-hour concierge service and a private cinema, the website of developer St Edward says.

Each new home will be fully furnished, and the government says they will be completed to a high-specification.

The flats are expected to be completed by the end of July.

It is unclear whether the new tenants from Grenfell will have access to the same facilities as those in the private properties, some of which cost as much as £8.5m.

The Department for Communities and Local Government said extra public money had been found so the flats could be fitted out more quickly, and more builders had been taken on.

It said the "expectation was that these new properties would be offered as one of the options to permanently rehouse residents from Grenfell Tower".

Ciao "they were built for social housing"

seems too good to be true!

From @nearlylegal on twitter

Nearly Legal‏ @nearlylegal 1h1 hour ago
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Replying to @Claire_Phipps
I want to know on what tenure, who the landlord is and what Gvt is defining as 'permanent'.

Nottingham City Council to retrofit their 13 tower blocks with sprinklers.

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-40344449?intlink_from_url=www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-london-40338670&link_location=live-reporting-story" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-40344449?intlink_from_url=www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-london-40338670&link_location=live-reporting-story

They will be fitted in all corridors and communal areas and residents will be given the option to have hem fitted in their flats.

Let's hope other Councils follow suit.

News on the radio (LBC) stating that the 'government has bought' these apartments. Could be incorrect of course.

Sorry for the cluster-posting!

Statement from Councillor Paget-Brown:

"For many of us, Wednesday 21 June will be a day of remembrance for the victims and the residents of Grenfell Tower, as we mark a week since the start of the tragic fire. We remain heart-broken by the appalling loss of life and we are doing everything we can to help the families of the victims and the residents to get the help they need as they try to rebuild their lives. We have now allocated a social worker to every household from Grenfell Tower, plus other families who live near the tower and that have been affected – a total of 96 households. They have been visiting families since last week and will be a key support for families going forward. As of yesterday (20 June), a total of 250 households had been placed in temporary accommodation pending permanent rehousing. The Government has committed to re-housing all residents within three weeks of the disaster and as close to the Grenfell Tower as possible. We are committed to helping deliver that promise, and no residents have been offered accommodation outside of central London. The community assistance centre at Westway has been in operation since last Wednesday morning. In addition to the centre at Westway, which will continue to offer support to the community, we will also be opening a further centre specifically for the friends and family of the victims and the missing, details of which will be provided in the next 24 hours. We would like to offer our heartfelt thanks to the community, the Emergency Services, hospitals, charities, volunteer groups, the Government and neighbouring local authorities and to our own teams who have been working tirelessly to try and help all those affected by this terrible event. We are enormously grateful for their support. We are deeply sorry for all those affected and today we will remember the victims and stand with the residents and our community.”

Cllr Nicholas Paget-Brown
Kensington & Chelsea Borough Council

Shame he couldn't have made it a week ago.

Although its great news in some respects, it's still a block of flats. It looks to be about nine stories high from Google Images. I can't imagine ever wanting to live nine stories up in a block of flats ever again if I was in that situation, no matter how "luxurious".

Nearly Legal‏ @nearlylegal 30m30 minutes ago
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Replying to @nearlylegal @measpinall and 3 others
But it is also not the 'luxury flats bought for Grenfell tenants' story.
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Nearly Legal‏ @nearlylegal 33m33 minutes ago
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Replying to @measpinall @LewisJamesBrown and 2 others
Hence my original question about tenure type that will be involved
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Nearly Legal‏ @nearlylegal 36m36 minutes ago
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Replying to @cbish93 @seanjonesqc and 2 others
Likely to have otherwise been HA 'affordable' (50-80% of market rent) or shared ownership. Different segment to social tenancies
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Nearly Legal‏ @nearlylegal 50m50 minutes ago
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Replying to @seanjonesqc @LewisJamesBrown @cityoflondon
Great that it is being done, but they were going to a housing association or similar in any event.

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/called-hillsborough-law-introduced-queens-13217722

It is great they are being housed. However, I also hope that other social housing will be built/found for people on the waiting list who these homes were probably built "for" -not directly for certain people, but they wouldn't have built/allocated these homes for social housing unless there was already a need.

"New measures to help bereaved families following public disasters such as Hillsborough were mentioned as The Queen officially opened Parliament today.

The Queen’s Speech - which today set out the Government’s legislative agenda - included a reference to plans to introduce an independent public advocate.

This will create measures - although not in the form of a bill - which would set up an independent advocate to act for bereaved families after a public disaster like Hillsborough or the recent Grenfell Tower fire"

So are all the MN Labour supporters now going to write in praise of those of us who pay a lot of tax and the Tory Govenrment we support who has spent so much to house these people?

"The deal is thought to have cost tens of millions of pounds as apartments in the development are currently for sale from £1,575,000 to £8.5 million.

Some of the families currently being put up in hotels in the area will be moved into the flats permanently from the end of next month.

The 68 one, two and three bed flats have been bought by the City of London Corporation in response to the tragedy and handed to Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council for 'long term' social housing.

An average flat is £2.4million but the developer St Edward sold the 68 for a total of £10million in an 'extraordinary gesture' and insisted on being paid what it cost to build them."

YY Burn You have the same feeling as me That its another group of potential tenants who are going to pay the price for this instead of KCTMO and RBKC

Moving in the right direction at last, thank goodness.

Mary it was a Tory council who belittled and ignored tenants and threatened them with malicious legal action when they sounded warnings about fire safety They also had power surges.

The Gov also voted against homes being fit for human habitation. And this legislation DID include social housing. I was told this by the housing lawyer that drafted it.

RBKC and KCTMO and some of these politicians need to practice what they preach and do what they are always telling poorer people to do and TAKE SOME DAMN RESPONSIBILITY.

Well Mary it would have only cost an extra five grand for the fire resistant cladding

The most expensive five grand they have ever "saved" !!

We are going to see a lot more of these luxury developments being sold at cost to LAs for social housing. There is a MASSIVE over supply and if the developers can get out at cost they will avoid bankruptcy. Nine Elms etc there are 10s of 1000s of these flats being built. People on social housing lists should be very hopeful about being housed in the next two to three years.

*Mary
*
Supplying these tenants with flats to rent on a permanent basis (i.e. Replacing the housing they previously had) is the very LEAST the government should be doing, considering the government's and council's culpability in this horrific event.

I read they were being sold at the cost to build them as a goodwill gesture by the developer, and that they will be permanent homes.

Fabulous if true - but wonder about the costs of running them etc.

Meaculpa - I really hope that's true but round my way, they are still building on every possible space and it's mostly being sold abroad.

wonder about the costs of running them etc

So did I, but then hopefully modern buildings standards should mean they're more efficient energy-wise

My own understanding is that the flats are part of the "affordable housing" which developers have to provide now, but that money's being spent to get them ready sooner. The Guardian reported that they'd be fitted less luxuriously though to the same building standard and that the social housing tenants wouldn't necessarily have access to all the facilities - whether or not this is true I really don't know

The money usually disappears IME. We got the princely sum of £500 from the musicians's benevolent fund but nothing from any of the fundraising from elsewhere and none of the governments £20M 'compensation'. If they still have it hopefully it's gone on Grenfell residents housing. There's so little accountability.

Alba, you lost your house and got none of the money from the fundraising?!

HD I thought it was the tenant majority controlled body which decided to save the £5k not the state?