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Healey accuses May of ‘dragging feet’ over Grenfell
Shadow housing secretary John Healey has accused Theresa May of dragging her feet in response to the Grenfell Tower fire.
Labour’s lead voice on housing was addressing delegates at the party conference in Liverpool this morning.
Rounding off his speech, Mr Healey turned to Grenfell – a tower block in the Conservative London borough of Kensington and Chelsea which was destroyed in a blaze last June, killing 72 people.
He demanded to know why, 15 months on from the fire, nearly half of the survivors are still not in permanent homes and why there are “more than 400 other tower blocks still cloaked in that same lethal Grenfell-style cladding”.
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“So I say to the prime minister: if this was your home, would it really take this long to fix? If this was where your family slept each night, would you fail to act over 15 long months?” Mr Healey said.
“So let’s send a message to Theresa May – stop dragging your government’s feet and act: act to get all survivors a new home, bring all those culpable to book and put in place every measure needed to prevent this ever happening again.”
The Wentworth and Dearne MP also announced two new policies during his speech: backing and funding for new “renters’ unions” around the country, as well as a levy on second homes used as holiday homes, to “help give homeless families the chance of a first home”.
To applause, Mr Healey told the party faithful: “The next Labour government will be the most radical government on housing since that great post-war Labour government, and we will do whatever it takes to end this Tory housing crisis.”
And he said Labour is “winning on housing”, forcing the government “to change tack” – with housing the “top domestic priority” for leader Jeremy Corbyn.
In power, the party would “lead a new national housing mission which demands more of all – from commercial house builders to housing associations, from lenders to landlords, from tenants to local councils”, he added.
At the last count on 20 September, 121 former residents of Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk have accepted a permanent home, while 44 households remain in emergency accommodation and 39 are in other forms of temporary accommodation.
All but 17 households have accepted an offer of a permanent home.
There are 159 social housing high rises with cladding systems similar to Grenfell, with the cladding fully removed on 22 and work having started on another 99.
However, of 295 private sector buildings including hotels and student accommodation, just 36 have finished or started with remediation – while there are no clear plans to strip the cladding in place for 124.
