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Grenfell Tower The Aftermath Thread SIX.

691 replies

HelenaDove · 05/07/2017 19:46

I thought i would take the oppurtunity to start thread six as thread five is now coming to an end. Thanks Thanks to all those lost in the fire their survivors families friends and volunteers.

Link to thread five which also includes links to previous threads.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/2959251-London-Fire-Grenfell-Tower-thread-five?pg=1

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HelenaDove · 05/01/2019 23:51

Sweeping new powers must be given to social tenants as part of an overhaul needed to ensure a Grenfell-style disaster never happens again, a powerful cross-party commission will warn this week.

It found that social tenants are being failed by a system that leaves them waiting an average of eight months before their complaints are investigated, even when their safety could be at risk.

The calls for a once-in-a-generation rethink of tenants’ rights come from the Social Housing Commission, a year-long investigation brought together by the charity Shelter following the Grenfell Tower fire in which 72 people died. Its commissioners include the former Labour leader Ed Miliband, the Conservative former cabinet minister Sayeeda Warsi and the campaigner Doreen Lawrence, whose son Stephen was murdered in a racist attack in 1993. Lawrence said few people in positions of power “understand what this experience [being a social tenant] is like”.

“I doubt they’ve ever had to live in poor housing or know what it is like to feel invisible, like no one cares,” she said. “The case for investing in social housing is overwhelming. We cannot solve the housing crisis without it, but the system must be made more responsive to tenants at the same time.”

The commission is demanding a regulator with similar muscle to the body set up in the aftermath of the financial crisis to fix a system that has left social tenants feeling ignored or branded as troublemakers for raising serious concerns. The panel is also calling for a “significant expansion” of new social housing as well as comprehensive changes to the way the sector is run. The commission has spent a year researching the housing emergency, with 31,000 people responding to its consultation exercise.

One of the main findings is how the current regulatory system is failing social renters. In 2017-18 the average time taken for a decision by the housing ombudsman was eight months. Deep frustrations were expressed to the commission by both private renters and those in social-rented accommodation. The commission’s full report is published on Tuesday.

The commissioners – who also include the former Treasury minister Jim O’Neill, Ed Daffarn of Grenfell United, which represents survivors, and Gavin Kelly of the Resolution Trust thinktank – want a new regulator for landlords based on the Care Quality Commission or the Financial Conduct Authority, which was set up after the crisis of 2008 to protect consumers.

Research for the commission by the Britain Thinks agency found that 31% of social renters feel their landlord does not think about their interests when making decisions. In London 38% of social renters feel their landlord does not consider their interests. Nationally only a fifth (19%) of social renters felt able to influence the decisions made by their landlord about their home.
'It's a room of lawyers': what have we learnt from the Grenfell Tower inquiry?
Read more

The commission also proposes a new national tenants’ organisation to give social housing residents a voice at a regional and national level and the scrapping of rules that slow down tenants from complaining to a regulator.

There has been growing clamour for an overhaul of renters’ rights after the Grenfell disaster in 2017. The next phase of the official inquiry into the fire is not expected to go ahead until the end of the year.

Daffarn said: “Social housing is not like choosing a doctor – you can’t just up sticks and move if your housing association gets a low rating. Much more is needed to put power in residents’ hands. We need a new regulation system that will be proactive and fight for residents, with real repercussions for housing associations or councils that fail in their duty.”

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HelenaDove · 12/01/2019 19:41

glynrobbins.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/shelters-vision-for-social-housing-has-a-blind-spot/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

"Last Tuesday, I attended the launch of Shelter’s report “A Vision for Social Housing”. First, the good news. The recommendations significantly out-bid other mainstream policies, including those of the Labour Party. The report calls for a 20 year programme to build 3.1 million “social’ homes, with investment of £10 billion a year. Labour’s housing Green Paper only commits to spending £4 billion. The current government has committed only £2 billion for “social housing” over the next 10 years.

The report makes an irrefutable argument that building the homes we need would pay for itself (within 30 years) through savings in Hosing Benefit and the many other costs resulting from the false economies of current policy. Shelter is also calling for a broad political alliance to ensure that building the homes we need isn’t derailed by changes of government, or other political events like Brexit. As one of the report’s commissioners, Jim O’Neill, quite rightly said, there are no excuses and it was refreshing to hear both Ed Miliband and Sayeeda Warsi admit they hadn’t done enough when they had more political clout.

The report was prompted by the Grenfell atrocity and there are some important measures suggested for ensuring that, as Doreen Lawrence puts it, tenants’ lives are never again put at risk due to “institutional indifference”.

There were repeated assurances that the report would not be allowed to gather dust and would lead to action, but worryingly, when asked, there didn’t appear to be any clear strategy for how this would happen. Nonetheless, Shelter is a respected, influential voice, so this report could be a significant breakthrough moment.

Here comes the “but”. Shelter has effectively air-brushed council housing and its specific identity out of the past, present or future. The report goes into considerable detail about the causes and consequences of the housing crisis, with the fundamental, if obvious, conclusion that we’ve not been building enough new homes for people with low or moderate incomes, what Shelter refers to, misleadingly, as “social housing”.

With others, for years I’ve insisted on making the distinction between council housing and other forms of non-market rented homes. This is not a semantic, academic or peripheral issue. It’s absolutely critical to answering the question Shelter puts: “How have we got here?”

It’s disappointing that the report appears to deliberately manipulate data to present a distorted impression of post-war housing. At the launch, Ed Miliband rightly drew attention to the country’s astonishing house-building achievements after 1945. But it was, emphatically, council housing, not “social housing”, that carried the load. Of the 860,870 homes completed in the UK between 1949 and 1952, 82% were built through local authorities. The proportion of new council homes reduced over subsequent years, but was still over half of total output until 1959. Throughout this period, the number of new housing association (HA) homes built a year averaged 4%. Council housing continued to average over 40% of new homes built a year from 1960 – 1980, while the average percentage of new HA homes stayed in single figures. During the four decades after the war, local authorities always built at least 110,000 homes a year

The Shelter report makes no mention of any of this.

Council house building has virtually dried-up since the 1990s. Meanwhile, HAs have been promoted, by all governments, as the monopoly providers of non-market rented homes. But they have never come near filling the gap. The high-water mark of new council homes was 1953, with 245,160 homes completed. HAs have never built more than 40,000 a year, or exceeded 22% of total output. An increasing proportion of these homes have not been for social rent. In 2016, approximately one-third of the 30,000 homes completed by HAs were built by the “G15” of big London-based organisations. Of these, only 14% were for social rent. 28% were for so-called Affordable Rent of up to 80% of market level. 28% were for full market rent or market sale.

Again, the Shelter report is silent on this. There is only muted, implied criticism of the role of HAs and their creeping – in some cases, galloping – commercialism. Instead, the big HAs’ line that they’ve been reluctant to make their corporate shift is repeated, when in fact, they have actively lobbied for it.

This is about policy, not politics, although of course, the two are symbiotic. By failing to acknowledge the true role of council housing, Shelter are ignoring the sharpest tool in the box."

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Original poster
HelenaDove · 31/01/2019 22:36

www.salfordstar.com/article.asp?id=4915

"PLANE COURT RESIDENTS PAID £20 FOR LIVING IN ICE BLOCK

Tenants living in Plane Court, Pendleton, have received just a £20 'good will payment' from Pendleton Together as extra heating cost compensation since cladding was stripped from their block at the end of last year... "It's cold and no way does that cover it", a resident told the Salford Star.

Meanwhile, after a small fire in Salix Court a few weeks ago, residents were left out in the evening cold for hours, many wearing just nightwear.

Plane Court Salford
click image to enlarge

Back in 'balmy' November, one tenant who lives in the Plane Court block where dangerous cladding had been stripped from the outer walls told the Salford Star that conditions were shocking...

"It's really cold, absolutely freezing...it's like being in the north pole" she said, revealing that she was pregnant and sleeps under silver thermal blankets usually given to the homeless (see here).

Almost three months later, with winter seriously kicking in and snow on the ground, more residents have told of what it's like to live within bare concrete walls...

"It is quite bad compared to how it was before" said one "I'm quite young so I can take it but I live with elders and I don't they are taking it nicely. They just need to get it fixed and not leave us in the dark over everything that's being done. Heating bills have gone up."

Around a month ago, Pendleton Together, which manages the nine blocks owned by Salford City Council that had similar cladding to Grenfell, offered just a £20 'good will' payment to tenants in Plane Court, to 'cover' extra heating bills.

"It's colder than it was before and no way does that cover it!" said another resident, who is struggling to make the controversial NIBE system work and has turned it off completely... "When we have it on high, it just cuts out and then by the time it comes on it's cold."

A spokesperson from Pendleton Together told the Salford Star that "We have not received any complaints from residents at Plane Court in relation to cold. We have proactively contacted all residents in order to monitor energy use.

"Prior to Christmas, a good will payment of £20 was offered to all residents by Pendleton Together, which some have declined" the spokesperson added "We continue to be in regular contact with residents and will use monitoring data on energy use and costs to inform any other payments to support residents. The majority of residents have received a home visit and we are continuing to work with residents on a one to one basis."

Pendleton Together wouldn't give any timescale as to when the outer cladding will be replaced, explaining that the company would be writing to residents "shortly" with an update. Residents have now had a letter saying there will be appointment-only meetings in February to discuss cladding updates.

Meanwhile, a few weeks ago, there was a small fire in the bin shoot at Salix Court, another of the Pendleton blocks. Residents were evacuated but the Star understands that they were left out in the cold wearing just nightwear

"I went out into the garden and there were people stood in their dressing gowns and pyjamas - elderly, young, disabled - and the only community room Pendleton Together opened was in Malus Court which only holds around 25 people" recalls Graeme Langton, the suspended chair of Malus Tenants and Residents' Association "The other community rooms in Beech and Hornbeam were not unlocked.

"I noticed that were three members of Pendleton Together present but there didn't seem to be any order; they didn't appear to be following correct fire evacuation procedures which they themselves had put in place, which was to congregate outside Pendleton Gateway" he adds

"The tenants were stood within twenty metres of the block, in the cold, freezing, and Pendleton Together could have opened Brotherton House, instead of letting people sit on cold benches in the garden" he explains "Residents said that they didn't hear any air horns, just fire alarms and fire marshals banging on the doors."

Pendleton Together disputes this account..."Despite some erroneous rumours we are able to confirm that Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service provided feedback that confirmed that the evacuation procedure had worked well in line with the policies in place" says a spokesperson "Two respite locations were opened and offered to residents, many of whom took up this offer.

"In the two working days following the evacuation all residents received a letter and an individual visit, with those who were not available on two occasions receiving a letter" the spokesperson adds "They were given reassurance, asked to provide feedback on the evacuation and given a channel to air any concerns, at the time or in the future. The feedback was overwhelmingly complimentary of the fire marshals and the evacuation procedure. We are in the process of writing an update to residents of all blocks which will remind people of the procedures in place."

As the controversial cladding issue continues to cause problems, still no-one has viewed the enigmatic Trident report (that isn't a report) which apparently details all the faults in all nine Pendleton blocks - despite months ago, Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, telling both the Salford Star and residents that the conclusions could be viewed...

"Trident carried out a series of surveys and work for us around the technical aspects of fire safety" says the Pendleton Together spokesperson "There is no Trident Report, Dossier or formal collation of these documents or recommendations. An offer of individual contact has been made to one resident in relation to a further discussion regarding this issue."

...Except that the resident concerned, believed to be Graeme Langton, says that he's had no contact from Pendleton Together regarding the matter."

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Original poster
HelenaDove · 06/02/2019 23:43

HelenaDove Wed 06-Feb-19 23:40:47

www.salfordstar.com/article.asp?id=4926

SMASHING BALCONY GLASS JUST MISSED CHILDREN AS SALFORD HOUSING COMPANY DENIED REPORTS OF WINDOWS FALLING OUT OF BLOCK

Star date: 6th February 2019

SEMANTICS KEEP SALFORD RESIDENTS IN DARK OVER COUNCIL BLOCKS SAFETY – AS RESIDENTS GET TENANCY WARNINGS

At Salford City Council meetings and in a letter to Salford and Eccles MP Rebecca Long-Bailey, Pendleton Together has batted away concerns by residents that windows had fallen out at Holm Court, even confirming that "there had not been any reports of windows having fallen onto the ground".

When the Salford Star confronted Deputy Mayor, John Merry, with proof of glass falling from height at Holm Court, narrowly missing children, he confirmed that it was a glass 'Juliet' balcony that had fallen and not a 'window' as such. Meanwhile, the mother of the children got no apology, just a tenancy warning

Holm Court Pendleton Salford Holm Court Pendleton Salford
click image to enlarge

'While Pendleton Together and Salford Council play semantics, Melissa herself and her children are still stuck in a block, two thirds covered in dangerous cladding, with no way to get out if a fire breaks out near her front door...'

It was on August 2nd last year when social workers and an independent reviewing officer were in a ground floor flat at Holm Court in Pendleton having a meeting with a tenant, Melissa, about her children, one of whom is disabled...

"The patio door was open because it was so warm in here and there's no windows" she recalls "My little girl was playing and my son was in his wheelchair and all of a sudden we heard a pop and all this glass came smashing in...it came flying across to the kitchen door; there was loads of it."

The glass had fallen from one of the flats above, and Pendleton Together, the company managing Holm Court - one of nine dangerously cladded blocks owned by Salford City Council – knew there was a problem because tenants had been warned not to go outside of their patio doors.

Initially, Melissa says, she had been told it was because of the windows 'as they keep popping', but adds that the housing company subsequently told her it was issues with the cladding. Yet, around most of the low-to-mid rise blocks on the estate, there are metal cages underneath all of the balcony windows, but not under all of the cladding.

A fragment of the shattered glass had to be removed from Melissa's child's foot, as the social workers went outside to see where the object had come from. Melissa got no apology from Pendleton Together, just an anti-social behaviour letter the next day for venturing outside, even though it was the social workers who went onto the grass.

"It was dangerous" she says "Social services put complaints in to say how dangerous it was."

Tenants soon began asking questions about window safety to Salford City Council, to Pendleton Together, and via the Salford Star* and Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey.

Yet in the minutes of the Council's Growth and Prosperity Scrutiny Panel on 22nd October, repeated to the MP in a recent letter, "Pendleton Together confirmed that there had not been any reports of windows having fallen to the ground. All balconies were fitted with toughened safety glass and balcony door glazing was laminated on the inside..."

The suspended – yes, suspended for 'breaches of the constitution'– elected chairman of the nearby Malus Court TARA (tenants and residents association), Graeme Langton, is furious...

"I brought this up at Council meetings and with the housing company and through the MP and they have denied knowledge that it happened" he says "Now we have the proof, I have been vindicated."

What could be regarded as semantics to avoid the issue do not only pertain to this case. Shortly after the Grenfell Tower tragedy, Pendleton Together commissioned Trident consultants to report on safety issues in the blocks.

Both the City Mayor, Paul Dennett, and Deputy Mayor, John Merry, have said that tenants should be able to read the conclusions. Yet nothing has been shown, as Pendleton Together continue to resist making it public, arguing that it is not a 'report'...

In a statement to the Salford Star only last week, the company insisted "There is no Trident Report, Dossier or formal collation of these documents or recommendations", refusing access yet again.

While Pendleton Together and Salford Council play semantics, Melissa herself and her children are still stuck in a block, two thirds covered in dangerous cladding, with no way to get out if a fire breaks out near her front door – as the patio door cannot be opened and her kitchen window only opens slightly.

This is just one example amongst lots of safety issues within the blocks. Pendleton Together is currently undertaking a programme of "required fire safety work", which further beggars the question whether tenants are living in safe housing, while the cladding replacement tender has not even gone out to potential contractors yet.

The whole Pendleton Together management is a complete mess, with elected resident representatives being suspended, two blocks having no representation at all (Spruce and Whitebeam), and the word games being played to seemingly avoid safety issues.

The Salford Star asked Pendleton Together to comment but the company has not responded. This afternoon, Deputy Mayor, John Merry, told the Salford Star...

"I've already agreed to meet with Mr Langton to discuss these issues with him" he said "But the only record I've got is of a balcony, not a window, and that this was partly caused by vandalism..."

See previous related Salford Star articles...

  • Cladding and Window Safety Scares At Pendleton Blocks - click here

  • Just £20 Compensation Paid To Freezing Tenants in Pendleton Stripped Cladding Block - click here

  • Salford Council, Pendleton Together and Tory Government Win Grenfell Tower Memorial Award - click here

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Original poster
HelenaDove · 11/02/2019 17:47

www.24housing.co.uk/news/scottish-housing-associations-to-come-under-foi/

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Kazzyhoward · 15/02/2019 10:45

The role of the fire service will be scrutinised on Monday 18 February in Channel five's Dispatches documentary at 8pm.

www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/hpzsn9/channel-4-dispatches/

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FlameIngSofa · 18/02/2019 13:30

The FBU is doing a lot of last minute lobbying with regard to Dispatches tonight. It appears as if their main concern is the Stay Put policy. It doesn't help that their chief fire safety officer - who they've since sacked - consistently defended the policy (even though it clearly failed and was flawed in any case) with regard to Grenfell.

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HelenaDove · 18/02/2019 20:43

i just watched it Shock

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HelenaDove · 18/02/2019 21:09

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/18/london-social-housing-block-residents-warn-of-death-trap-conditions

"London social housing block residents warn of ‘death trap’ conditions

Water-soaked electrics, severe damp and lift breakdowns in flats managed by A2Dominion

Residents of a six-year-old block of flats in south-west London are warning that they are living in a “death trap” and fear a catastrophe similar to the Grenfell Tower fire.

The block’s managers have promised to address urgent problems after photographs of water-soaked electrics, black mould and severe damp were posted on Twitter. Residents have also reported frequent and prolonged lift breakdowns, which have created particular difficulties for a number of tenants who use wheelchairs.

Clyde House is a block of social housing, with 62 flats over eight floors, built as part of a private housing development in Wandsworth, close to the River Thames. Some of the properties are reserved for people with special needs.

Residents claim Clyde House was constructed with shoddy materials, and that the surrounding blocks were better built and have been properly maintained. “The other blocks look identical to ours, but we’re treated like second-class citizens,” said Shevonne Will, who posted pictures on Twitter last week

shevonne will @ShevonneLDN
· Feb 16, 2019

I didn’t want to do this but I’m currently living in a death trap. I’m afraid that we will be the next Grenfell.

I’m a resident at Clyde house which is a social housing block under @A2DominionGroup.

We need them to take this seriously before the building goes up in flames!

shevonne will @ShevonneLDN

Due to leaks that began 3-4 years ago we are constantly hearing electrical wires crackling in the walls, the building is flooding & there is mould growing everywhere.

There are BUCKETS OF WATER in electrical cupboards. It is a disaster waiting to happen

Justine Greening, the Conservative MP for the area, who raised the issue in parliament last week, said the problems facing residents were “totally unacceptable”.
Advertisement

At an angry and at times chaotic meeting at Clyde House on Monday, many residents spoke of flooding from cracked pipes, light fittings filled with water, vermin, a pervasive smell of sewage, a lack of hot water, exposed and sparking electrical wires – and frustration that their complaints had been ignored

Talha Khepi, an independent fire risk assessor who volunteered to inspect the block after seeing social media posts, said he rated the building at moderate to high risk. He was particularly concerned about unenclosed electrical wires and their exposure to water, he said.

David Fenton, 57, who lives on the sixth floor, said the building often shook and cracks had appeared. “Piping on the top floor has cracked and water has seeped into the electrics and down all the walls. It’s infested with vermin. It’s dangerous and uninhabitable.”

A single mother of an 11-year-old disabled child said she had been signed off work with back problems after being forced to drag her daughter up the stairs in her wheelchair to their eighth-floor flat.

Sophie, who did not want to give her full name, told A2Dominion representatives at the meeting: “My back hurts, my head hurts, I wake up at night worrying about whether the lifts will work. Why haven’t you listened?”

Other residents described being made to feel like “riff-raff” compared with their owner-occupier neighbours. Flats in neighbouring blocks have been on the market for up to £800,000.

Greening, who was at Monday’s meeting, said residents’ lives had been made “a misery”.

She added: “It’s taken chasing phone calls, on site meetings and raising it in parliament to get any sort of response. And even then promises on sorting out problems have been broken. It’s time for an overhaul of the system to better hold these organisations to account.”

David Lingeman, A2Dominion’s director of property services, told the meeting: “We recognise that things are not right and we’re going to put them right. We haven’t performed well, and you have my personal apology.”

Resolving the faults with the building would take four months, he said

According to its website, A2Dominion is a “residential property group with a social purpose”. It has created 37,000 homes, with another 7,800 in development, and has a £300m-plus turnover.

In a statement, Andrew Evans, its executive director of operations, said: “We are aware of the ongoing issues at Clyde House. We apologise for the disruption it is causing our residents. Their safety and wellbeing is of the utmost importance to us and we are doing everything we can to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”

He said temporary heaters had been provided and residents were being offered temporary alternative accommodation. “We regret that the issues have not been resolved sooner,” Evans said."

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HelenaDove · 19/02/2019 18:27

Family who lived in Grenfell Tower now face losing their home again

www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/family-who-fled-grenfell-tower-15846547

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HelenaDove · 20/02/2019 00:04

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grenfell-met-police-funding-royal-wedding-security-trump-visit-madeleine-mccann-a8786456.html

The government refused to fully meet a special request for funding towards the Grenfell Tower police investigation despite approving all others made last year – including those to cover security for the royal wedding and Donald Trump’s visit.

While the request for additional funding for the probe into the 2017 disaster was considerably higher than others lodged by the Metropolitan Police – at £11m last year and £13.5m in 2018-19 – politicians said the decision was causing further delays and accused the Home Office of “denying justice”.

Among the funding requests that were met in full were the Commonwealth Summit – which received £5.2m last year – security for both the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (£237,000) and the US president's 2018 visit (£1.3m), and the Madeleine McCann investigation (£608,500).

It comes amid growing anger over the lack of progress into the investigation of the Grenfell tragedy, which killed 72 people. More than a year and a half on from the tragedy, no arrests have been made and only three interviews have so far been carried out

Emma Dent Coad, Labour MP for Kensington, said: “Justice delayed is justice denied. The government must urgently explain their decision to withhold special grant funding for the Grenfell Tower investigation

“The police have hundreds of thousands of documents to examine and lack of funds for processing them will slow down their investigation

If the government can find the special grant funding to fully cover the costs of security for a visit from Donald Trump and a Royal Wedding, then they can find the money needed for justice for Grenfell.”

The Home Office and the Metropolitan Police have been contacted for comment

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