Quote:
Originally Posted by denphone
Indeed it is not easy rehousing that amount generally.
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It's pure chance that they were available but there'll always be those who believe there's plenty of empty housing just ready to be occupied in London.
Yes it'd be just like the money grabbing landlords to leave properties empty in large numbers and miss out on all that cash they spend night and day trying to accumulate at the expense of society.
They're only interested in capital growth we're told. Yeah right, rents in C London are huge and nobody in their right mind is going to leave large numbers of rentable properties empty for very long.
Meanwhile, back on safety. Last night IIRC I heard an interview with a tenant of another block who confirmed that they'd removed the fire door in their kitchen because it was a pain and got in the way. I can understand that, fire doors are often a pain (as are smoke alarms when they go off every time you make toast) until there's a fire and they save your life. I wonder how many residents in other tower blocks have, for one reason or another and possibly without fully realising the risks either removed or disabled other essential safety equipment. Worryingly, the young lady concerned told the reporter that they'd had a safety inspection and no safety issues had been raised with her regarding the missing door...
If we're going to get serious about tackling fire risks due to stuff like cladding or resulting from poorly undertaken updating works, surely we're going to have to revisit the abuse of regulations by residents and others with access to these buildings. We all know it happens and people are quick to complain when those who're not really capable of looking after themselves safely are housed in blocks such as these but what about those who wilfully or otherwise break the rules and thereby expose everyone else to serious risk?
It seems a faulty fridge was what caused the initial fire but it could equally have been something totally irresponsible that a resident did. Such are the emotions right now that it's impossible to imagine anyone wanting to point out the role residents have in ensuring that all safety related matters are adhered to in such blocks but it is important and we mustn't lose sight of it in the rush to apportion blame in this case. Inspections clearly need to be made more frequent and more rigorous but no matter how often they're done, the residents have to be made fully aware of the risk factors and act responsibly in observing the rules.