Displaying items by tag: Grenfell Tower

MP Emma Dent Coad’s seat includes Grenfell Tower. She has urged the government to delay the launch of Universal Credit in the area, as it could leave many of her constituents without money over Christmas. The scheme should come to North Kensington thirteen days before Christmas. A constituent assessed monthly and paid £60 for each Friday in that month would receive £300 in November, a month with five Fridays, but receive £240 in December which has four Fridays. Also they may have to wait the estimated five weeks for benefits to come through. A DWP spokesperson said there were special measures in place in preparation for Universal Credit roll-out in North Kensington. Last Christmas extra money promised to Grenfell Tower survivors and evacuees to help cover the cost of Christmas did not arrive in time for 18 households. Pray this will not be repeated in 2018.

On the anniversary of the Grenfell Tower disaster, many survivors describe their inability to forgive and their need to find someone to blame. In the midst of darkness and sorrow Ray’s story stands out. He welcomed seven of his neighbours into his top-floor flat, offering refuge while awaiting rescue. Later it was found that they had sat on his bed, while Ray sat on the floor at their feet. In an inquiry full of sadness and grief, we heard Ray's family describe him as a hero. His actions that night reflect a love that is so often absent from our society. He welcomed his neighbours into his home and gave them a space on his bed as they took their final breath. Ray loved his neighbours as himself.

Some survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire will still be living in emergency accommodation a year after the tragedy, the Government has confirmed. Housing secretary James Brokenshire told MPs that of the 210 households affected, 201 had accepted rehousing offers. 138 of them have moved: 64 to temporary accommodation and 74 to permanent homes. Labour said only a third of the families were in a permanent home. After the fire (on 14 June 2017), which killed 71 people, the Government said survivors would be offered permanent furnished social housing within twelve months. Mr Brokenshire acknowledged that progress had been too slow, but said the local council now had 300 properties available to those who needed them. Prime Minister Theresa May said, ‘As we approach the anniversary of this appalling tragedy, our thoughts are with the victims and survivors and all those affected by that tragedy.’

Nearly two thousand homes are empty near the Grenfell Tower, while 100+ families are homeless. Kensington and Chelsea Council, which owns the tower, revealed that dozens of vacant homes may have been empty for 11 to 15 years. 260 properties stand vacant in southern parts of the borough, the opposite end to Grenfell in the poorer north. These vacant homes are associated with the ‘buy-to-leave’ phenomenon, which involves super-rich foreigners buying high-end properties not to live in, but as an investment. The fire has revealed a terrible message about social inequality in today’s cities. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn faced controversy when he called for Kensington homes left vacant by rich overseas investors to be ‘requisitioned’ for survivors, calling the borough ‘a tale of two cities’.

It is over two weeks since the Grenfell Tower fire disaster, and people are still very angry. Many believe that people need not have died that night. Successive governments presided over a progressive weakening of regulation and inspection systems that would one day lead to tragedy. They had been warned again and again, by fire officers, buildings inspectors, MPs, insurers - everyone who knew anything at all about fire safety. In Scotland, after a man died in a 1999 tower block fire, the rules on permissible building materials were changed and the inspection regime tightened. The same was not done in England. In 2013, after six people died in a London tower block fire, a coroner recommended a review of fire safety regulations ‘with particular regard to the spread of fire over the external envelope of a building’. The review was never carried out. May health and safety rules never again be mocked.

Retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick has been chosen to lead the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire. Eighty people are now presumed dead after the disaster in west London on 14 June. Born in Wales and educated at Cambridge, the 70-year-old is said to be highly respected in the profession and ‘intellectually superb’. But leading barrister Michael Mansfield QC, who has met survivors of the fire, has said it is ‘unbelievable that lessons are not learned’ from the earlier inquiry into child sexual abuse, which he claimed had not consulted the families or the survivors. ‘The same thing seems to have happened all over again’, he said. Local residents are unconvinced that the inquiry will attribute responsibility as well as identifying the cause of the blaze. Meanwhile, tests have shown inflammable cladding on 120 tower blocks in the UK, and that number is expected to rise. Aluminium composite cladding has been widely blamed for the speed with which the Grenfell Tower fire spread. See

Activists descended on Westminster for a ‘Day of Rage’ protest on 21 June, as Theresa May set out her legislative programme for the next two years in the Queen’s Speech. The demonstration, organised by Movement for Justice by Any Means Necessary (MFJ), saw protesters marching to Downing Street, with the aim of ‘bringing down the Government’. Mrs May became the first prime minister in decades to lay out a legislative programme without a guaranteed House of Commons majority, as the Conservatives have yet to reach a deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party. The MFJ said the protest was in reaction to ‘brutal austerity, cuts and anti-immigrant attacks’, and last week’s Grenfell Tower tragedy in which at least 79 died. Some condemned the protest for politicising the anger, or thought it was inappropriate. A different approach was taken by London City Mission and the Message Trust, who organised a day of prayer and fasting in Kensington.

Rescuers do not expect further survivors in the block of flats engulfed by fire on 14-15 June. At the time of writing 17 are confirmed dead, and there are ‘unknown numbers’ of people in the smouldering ruins of Grenfell Tower, Kensington. Pray for the friends and relatives desperately seeking news of the missing. Thirty people remain in hospital; pray for God to be with the nurses, doctors, clinicians and families of the patients. Tributes are being paid to the bravery of the emergency services and members of the public who assisted. Pray for those suffering from trauma to receive appropriate care - particularly those who had to watch while others burned in the inferno. There has been an overwhelmingly generous response to the tragedy - see It is too early to speculate what caused the fire or contributed to its spread, but health, safety and fire prevention concerns had been raised by residents. Pray for the forthcoming investigations.

The fire that tore through Grenfell Tower brings us to our knees, as we cry out to the Lord. People in London and across the nation are deeply saddened by this tragedy. Our hearts go out to all who have lost family, friends, homes and belongings, and to those who have been injured, both physically and psychologically. We lift them up before the Lord in prayer. We praise God for our emergency services and their selfless response to the situation, and continue to pray as they look after the injured and homeless. London City Mission is working with the Message Trust at Latymer Community Church, and its missionaries are praying and giving comfort to those who have lost so much and providing essential toiletries, clothes and food. Please pray for wisdom for those on the ground who are coordinating response efforts and support.

On 12 June Peter Horrobin of Ellel said that the UK has emerged from its most extraordinary election in living memory, at the same time as terrorist attacks on Manchester and London took lives in the name of Allah and scarred the lives of many hundreds caught up in the events. As media and politicians discuss the past few weeks, it is time for God’s people to pray for their nation and seek His face afresh for how to respond in the face of chaos, fear and spiritual darkness. It is time to make a stand against moral confusion and false religion. It is time to pray earnestly for our Christians in parliament: Tim Farron has stepped down as Lib Dem leader, after repeated questions over his faith. It is time to pray for Christian voices to command the respect of our leaders in commerce and industry, as investigations begin into the Grenfell Tower fire.