Forum Topic

Grenfell Tower

The tragic fire at the Grenfell Tower in Notting Hill is the result of the Conservative Party policy of privatising Council services. The only excuse for this policy is to save money, this is the result of saving money, people's lives. Council Housing should be under the direct control of the Council as should all other public ervices.

Roy Baker ● 3216d22 Comments

Yes, this is another problem which can happen and which the owners of the property probably have no knowledge of.  It can cause an awful lot of damage to a property and may mean that the landlord can't claim on their insurance for all the damage done.  Regular inspections are needed of all rented properties.http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2323042/Sorry-homes-dope-farm-youre-insured.html

Philippa Bond ● 3195d

But what proportion of HMOs are registered? No-one will know. How often does Ealing inspect HMOs and prosecute the illegal unlicensed ones? I suspect very rarely.

Graham Weeks ● 3196d

In our road we had another kind of criminality in a private let; a cannabis farm.

Graham Weeks ● 3196d

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/houses_in_multiple_occupation_hmo

Philippa Bond ● 3196d

Illegal sub-letting also happens in private property.  A landlord may interview a couple as potential tenants but if they are not around to find out or even perhaps turn a blind eye to the fact that their house or flat is being filled with bunk beds and many many extra people. An illegal House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO).These should be registered for the safety of the tenants. See the Council website:  www.ealing.gov.uk

Philippa Bond ● 3196d

Residents concerns are genuine, IMO not political. But the recent police report that total fatalities may not be known until the end of the year and that they may be around 80 I found puzzling. There was an earlier police appeal to name anyone who might have been in the building. But who is going to name illegal sub-letters? It is not unknown for this criminal behaviour to happen in public sector properties. I cannot imagine those who know of illegal sub-letting telling the police any names.

Graham Weeks ● 3203d

This was politicised & still being so. Hijacked by various anti establishment groups. Where does all this money come from to make top notch social housing. You get what you are given or shell out like everyone else

Peter Yale ● 3203d

Interestingly I've heard that both Scottish and Welsh regulations are clearer than the English ones.  I've already discovered this with planning.

Philippa Bond ● 3211d

In a sense with the information coming out there is no need to exploit for a particular agenda. There are several areas of blame and it was interesting that our chancellor was saying that the panels were clearly illegal in this country. But there are other levels of responsibility with questions of safety and that will inevitably have political consequences. There is also a natural feeling of anger. The Fire Brigade were heroic, but did they have the resources to tackle this fire effectively? Plenty of questions are coming out and the answers may point to certain people who will fight to deflect those questions. But more importantly as a country we have to accept that we need to pay more tax if we want a better society.

Peter Chadburn ● 3211d

I think there is a big difference between having a genuine belief that there is a specific reason for a tragedy and seeking to exploit death to further a political agenda. I asked Roy to explain his reasoning and got no response so, in this instance, he maybe should have paused for thought before posting.

Helena Cavanagh ● 3211d

I agree with Peter Chadburn.  We seem fixated on looking for things on the cheap and forgetting about quality and value. My ex-army father-in-law would be asking "Who's in charge?"  There doesn't seem to be enough proper teamwork and people can not or do not seem to take responsibility nowadays where and when they should. There's too much box-ticking without thought.This was a refurbished tower block.  Any and all changes and how they were carried out need to be examined very carefully as soon as possible. Regulations change and need to keep on changing.  People also live quite differently now.  It's strange to imagine but this building was built before we had all the electronic gadgets that we now fill our lives with - eg mobile phones and laptops.  Do you know the LFB's recommendations about charging these?  Do your children?Have you missed the info on emollient creams which are often applied by carers to the elderly?There is always more to learn:http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/FireSafety.aspIf you look at changes in fire regulations you will see that they invariably follow various terrible fires/disasters.At this time of year excited teenagers will be planning to leave home for university.  Please make sure as far as you can that they will be moving into safe accommodation.  Private landlords by law have to fit smoke alarms but these are no good if they don't exist or the batteries don't work.  Check for yourselves as you may not get the right answers because you didn't ask the right questions!https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-for-students-in-rented-accommodation

Philippa Bond ● 3211d

We will get an idea over the coming days as Ealing is helping out over in RBKC and is now running part of the operation.

Paul Webster ● 3212d

Local authorities are supposed to have a Major Emergency plan in place. Would LBE perform any better than the Royal borough did?

Fred Hunt ● 3213d

The original post disgusts mePlaying political football with peoples lives and miseryAgendas just need to be pied off in circumstances like this even more when very very very close to home

Colin Goodman ● 3214d

Really, words fails me as dispassionate political points scoring seems to take precedence for some callous souls before the fire is out, the number of casualties known and the dead buried.You should be bloody ashamed.

Paul Gibbs ● 3215d

Outsourcing has been going on so long and in a way it is a nice way of avoiding responsibility. My limited first hand experience is in IT where a disconnect between end users and developers led to waste and problems. I see that we end up with too many people in the chain of responsibility with no one actually in charge. We see this as the current perceived wisdom supported by the consultancies and think tanks. Yes the IT system experience did not kill anyone but there was a lot of anger and wasted money and in the end damaged a business. But in safety and cost driven decisions there is always going to be a pressure to compromise. This is where the time bombs get hidden. Yes a lot of this had been driven by Conservative politicians, But Blair and Brown also encouraged this. But generally it has been in this country a way of hopefully cutting costs hidden under fancy logos and nice words. We are a bargain basement country where as individuals we all want a bargain and do not want to pay the going rate. Hence Primark being the main shop for many. So we ask our Politicians to keep taxes down but expect them to do a great job. We have to get real and accept that Social Responsibility costs money or else become the Dog eat Dog culture of Trump's USA.

Peter Chadburn ● 3215d

'Council Housing should be under the direct control of the Council as should all other public services.' Services have been outsourced from at least the start of the 90s so your call is somewhat belated.

Graham Weeks ● 3216d

My good friend died there , and lucky for him I missed him by 5mins today, the disrespectful tramp!

Dennis Brogan ● 3216d

Apart from the human tragedy I was simply amazed/shocked that a 20+ storey residential block of flats would only have a single staircase. Your local restaurant/pub, even if all at ground level, will always have an alternative Means of Escape from the main entrance.  Any experts out there that can shed some light on this?

Philip Coe ● 3216d

Indeed it is not the time to get political, Roy and I see that you haven't let facts get in the way of your claim.ALMO's were a mainstay of the Blair and Brown government's housing policy and were encouraged nation wide.

Keith Iddon ● 3216d

now's not the time to get all political about it.People are losing their lives by the hour and you are using the forum to air your political views.

Simon Wycombe ● 3216d

Can you explain in more detail why you believe that the fire was caused by privatisation? There seems to be two areas where culpability must lie - firstly with the architects and designers of the building who are always likely to be private sector companies and secondly with the building inspections and fire safety inspections which are private sector functions. The nature of the way the buildings are managed seems irrelevant in this instance.

Helena Cavanagh ● 3216d