By James Simons-
Over 4,000 tower blocks in the UK will undergo a review in safety measures, the environmental Secretary has promised.
Sajid Javid said on Friday that officials would do whatever was necessary to ensure residents of tower blocks in the Uk are safe. He said preliminary findings from the Greenfell Tower investigations will form the basis of a review on how the government will move forward with its overhaul of tower blocks. His comments came after Parliamentary MP’s pressed for extra resources to be put into tower blocks across the country.
The doomed tower blocks went ablaze in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and quickly spread across the tall storey building in North Kensignton. Experts believe that cladding fitted during a recent refurbishment may have inflamed the fire. A coroner’s recommendation in 2013 about new guidance produced nothing before this disaster.
Javid said : “This should never have happened in a country like Britain in the 21st century. It is not acceptable,” he told BBC breakfast. He also urged that the public and the media do not jump to conclusions that this was all about cladding.
“We need to be led by the experts and as soon as we have more information from the experts, which we expect either later today or certainly over the weekend, that is what I think should be used to do these emergency inspections,” he said.
Javid said those who had been made homeless should be given “the right quality local temporary accommodation, but I also want to make sure that their permanent accommodation is somewhere local”.
The review plan for over 4,000 tower blocks in the UK comes after Tottenham MP, David Lammy , called for Corporate Manslaughter charges against Kensington and Chelsea Management organisation who ignored safety warnings over a long period of time.
Residents of other tower blocks in the Uk, appalled by the scenes of disaster in West London immediately would have been alarmed by what they heard and saw.
The wide scale review will bring some comfort to the minds of worried residents, but this has come too late after a major disaster in the country that could have been avoided. With the death toll -currently at 17, but expected to rise- providing a painful reminder of how serious the consequence of ignoring warning signs, a repeat by all costs must be avoided.
At least now, it can be expected that the cries of tower block residents about structural or emergency failings, will in future be listened to and not ignored as arrogantly and recklessly as was done in this tragic case. There will still have to be a high price for this utter waste of life that has caused so much sorrow and sadness in many hearts.
Londoners have gone through enough sorrow as a community after the London Bridge and The Westminster terrorist attack, to add a self inflicted one by careless bosses is unforgivable. They must pay the consequences of their own reckless failure to act on sensible warnings.