A little over 100 days on from the Grenfell Tower fire, Kensington and Chelsea council confirmed in a meeting that only 20 of the 200 families that managed to escape the blaze or were evacuated from adjacent buildings had been permanently rehoused. Most survivors remain cooped up in hotel rooms, struggling to gain access to donations, of both cash and clothing.
Housing policy has barely shifted since the atrocity: Theresa May and her colleagues have dragged their heels on announcing precisely how another similar tragedy would be prevented. Survivors’ pleas to widen the inquiries into the fire have also been ignored, including questions around social housing policy and its contribution to the circumstances of the blaze.
But on Wednesday, Labour set out its stall on housing, promising a full review of social housing policy under shadow housing minister John Healey. It also pledged that a Labour government would control rents – as many countries across the globe manage to do – and ensure homes are fit for human habitation: a policy the Conservatives voted against in the previous parliament.
More clearly, Jeremy Corbyn outlined in his leader’s speech how to stop a tragedy like Grenfell Tower happening again, and how to prevent the social cleansing of estates across the country – many in Labour council areas. The policies set out to prevent stealth gentrification under the guise of regeneration include a guarantee that every tenant on an estate must have the right to return on the same site and same terms as before, with “no social cleansing, no jacking up rents, no exorbitant ground rents”. But Corbyn also said that councils will have to win a ballot of tenants and leaseholders before any redevelopment scheme can take place, with a view to making half-hearted and rigged consultation processes a thing of the past.
Predictably, some responses include claims that these tame and reasonable proposals would see floods of landlords leave the business and country, and that regeneration wouldn’t happen with compulsory ballots. But if you give people the opportunity to earn 90p instead of a pound, who seriously decides they’d rather make nothing at all? Landlords have made exorbitant sums thanks to an unregulated hold on the market and the sell-off of social housing. And if regeneration can’t be pursued without ruining lives, is it worth pursuing it at all?Realistically, landlords will grumble but accept their lot, and councils will have to plough more energy into speaking to tenants and ending evictions and displacement.
The proposals are bold and will be welcomed by many people fighting social cleansing under the guise of gentrification. This includes the tenants of Cressingham Garden, the Silchester estate near Grenfell Tower and the Lancaster West estate – and many more families in limbo – who are unclear whether plans for their communities’ futures include them.
Since Corbyn’s election, housing campaigners have asked the leader to make the party’s position on housing clear – many Labour councils have pursued rampant regeneration plans that displace many tenants – and take a national position that Labour councils in London, and beyond, should follow.
After Grenfell, many more people are aware of the false promises made to tenants and the cost-cutting that has led to so many towers being clad with unsafe material. Now Labour has a position that reflects the needs of many people hit by the housing crisis, and Labour councils will be under pressure to rein in and improve their behaviour.
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