It was announced today that as a result of the Grenfell Tower Fire 68 flats in a luxury apartment complex in the Borough will be given to families who lost their homes. On the face of it this seems like great news! I was incredibly happy to see that finally some action had been taken to get people new homes. But, the ‘Radical Housing Network’ – a network of grass roots groups fighting the case for more social housing in London – raised this longterm concern that we can’t ignore, and brings us back to the theme of austerity and the profound issue regarding the severe lack of ‘Social Housing’.

“Some good news – but more needs to happen. The very least the Grenfell Tower residents should be offered is alternative social housing.

Long term we need public investment in housing. This will save public money. Council housing pays for itself – £23 billion is spent every year on housing benefit which goes directly into landlord’s pockets.

We need housing for people not for profit – we need public investment in secure, decent, genuinely affordable housing for everyone.”

You can’t really deny that. Yes, this is a good look and we’re glad a lot of families will be getting new homes up to satisfactory safety standards, but the strain this will put on the council long term is going to be difficult to manage unless the current Conservative government starts building more social housing or we continue the fight to get a Goverment that will!

More info on the Radical Housing Network HERE and you can get more details on the luxury flats/rehousing effort for Grenfell in The Guardian article HERE