Grenfell tower tragedy

[Alex 35095]

May gets called a coward with plenty justification but the only reason she's still leading her party is because none of her fellow Tory MPs have the balls to take over for the EU talks 

[Rayvin 5223]

I figured it would also be the fear of another election. If they have a minority government, and their leader resigns, surely they basically have to call another election.

[Kid Dynamite 7034]

There's a shot storm coming up for the Tories with Brexit and the fallout from Grenfell. They will leave her in charge to take the flack rather than taint whoever her replacement is

[Happy Face 29]

I know why all the other Tories are backing her and sitting back. I just don't understand why she is happily eating the shit sandwich she made for herself. Just put it down and walk away.  She's either power mad or genuinely worried at how bad the fallout would be from another leadership race with no-one keen to run.

[Rayvin 5223]

4 minutes ago, Happy Face said:

I know why all the other Tories are backing her and sitting back. I just don't understand why she is happily eating the shit sandwich she made for herself. Just put it down and walk away.  She's either power mad or genuinely worried at how bad the fallout would be from another leadership race with no-one keen to run.

 

I suppose if you've spent your entire career building up to being PM, it's hard to just let it go.

[Anorthernsoul 1221]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/21/grenfell-tower-families-to-be-given-68-flats-in-luxury-apartment-complex

[Rayvin 5223]

Nice to see.

 

Plus it has the added bonus of being exactly the sort of compassionate solution that the Daily Mail will hate.

[Alex 35095]

Not to mention the other residents.

[Kid Dynamite 7034]

I'd imagine it's temporary moves and they aren't  giving 68 families £1mil+ flats each to keep. Mine would be on rightmove by nightfall

[Alex 35095]

11 hours ago, Kid Dynamite said:

I'd imagine it's temporary moves and they aren't  giving 68 families £1mil+ flats each to keep. Mine would be on rightmove by nightfall

I think affordable housing is often owned by a housing association then rented to the residents, rather than always being owned by the latter. In either case, they wouldn't be giving them away and I think there's restrictions on reselling timescales etc. anyway but if they are housing association they may well be offering to permanently house these people there, although you'd have thought they would have a big waiting list of people already wanting to move in to these flats.

[strawb 4269]

They aren't getting the expensive ones man. When you are given land to develop you have to build a certain amount of social housing, these are usually separated from the private sale properties, have separate access roads and no access to the shared amenities 

[Park Life 71]

3 minutes ago, strawb said:

They aren't getting the expensive ones man. When you are given land to develop you have to build a certain amount of social housing, these are usually separated from the private sale properties, have separate access roads and no access to the shared amenities 

Yup.

[Alex 35095]

22 minutes ago, strawb said:

They aren't getting the expensive ones man. When you are given land to develop you have to build a certain amount of social housing, these are usually separated from the private sale properties, have separate access roads and no access to the shared amenities 

They aren't but the re-sale value would still be a fortune in this case. Incidentally, all the bits of affordable housing I've seen locally are part of the same housing estate with the same access roads etc. Although I don't imagine in this case they'd have access to the luxury gym, swimming pool etc. Not that it would matter because none of the people who buy the dear ones will be living there.

[strawb 4269]

I agree with you but they are still social housing, they will still be renting them and not owning them. So the resale value is irrelevant 

[Alex 35095]

1 minute ago, strawb said:

I agree with you but they are still social housing, they will still be renting them and not owning them. So the resale value is irrelevant 

Aye, fair point, I wasn't saying they would own them, that was more of a follow-on from KD's comments. I think sometimes it's a mix of both though, aye? Anyway, not relevant either way in this case as you say.

[ewerk 30641]

I thought they were moving them into up market accommodation as an emergency measure. Unless by pure chance a load of social housing has suddenly been finished in the last week or so.

[Alex 35095]

23 minutes ago, ewerk said:

I thought they were moving them into up market accommodation as an emergency measure. Unless by pure chance a load of social housing has suddenly been finished in the last week or so.

Might be wrong but I thought there was initial talk about using empty luxury housing in the borough as a temporary measure (arguably mooted for political reasons / to make a point and unlikely to happen at a guess) whereas this is a more permanent solution. I don't know that they're finished necesssarily.

[ewerk 30641]

Quote

Brand-new flats in a Kensington High Street development have been bought for those who lost their homes in the blaze, according to the Evening Standard.

 

The private flats in the block start at £1.5m, however the apartments that will rehouse the families are part of the 120 affordable homes being built alongside them.

 

Penthouses in the development are expected to go for £13m, and flats in the building are expected to be purchased to permanently house Grenfell families.

 

The City of London Corporation is acquiring the 68 flats for around £10m as part of the response to the tragedy. A spokesman told the Evening Standard: “We are ready to do everything we can to help the victims of the terrible fire at Grenfell Tower.”

 

A spokesman for the Berkeley Group, which is building the development under the St Edward brand alongside Prudential confirmed they were finalising plans to rehouse Grenfell Tower residents. It is understood that the company was keen to do something to help the survivors of the fire, selling them at cost price, and have brought forward the date they will be ready. 

 

Aye you're right. It's flats earmarked for social housing. They aren't moving them into penthouse apartments. Fair play to the Berkeley Group for helping out.

Edited June 22, 2017 by ewerk

[ewerk 30641]

Nice to see everyone in Kensington pulling together at this time.

 

Quote

 “It’s so unfair,” said Maria, who was reading the news in the Evening Standard with two neighbours.

She bought her flat two years ago for a sum she was unwilling to disclose. “We paid a lot of money to live here, and we worked hard for it. Now these people are going to come along, and they won’t even be paying the service charge.”

 

Quote

“I’m very sad that people have lost their homes, but there are a lot of people here who have bought flats and will now see the values drop. It will degrade things. And it opens up a can of worms in the housing market.”

 

[Rayvin 5223]

"Worked very hard" = "Had rich parents, could afford privileged educations, had contacts for good jobs, worked about as hard as everyone else just with the advantages of hereditary wealth and class."

[Alex 35095]

Fuck them, I hope they're seething, the utter cunts

[NJS 4389]

17 minutes ago, Rayvin said:

"Worked very hard" = "Had rich parents, could afford privileged educations, had contacts for good jobs, worked about as hard as everyone else just with the advantages of hereditary wealth and class."

Yep - propagating this idea that anyone with money works hard and anyone without is a lazy skiver. 

 

Just like when Cameron accused people on benefits for their presumption of entitlement with no thought for that of him and his ilk. 

[Alex 35095]

And aye, the values of those places will plummet, what a load of shite. They'll be worth more than what they paid for them already. They won't even see the people in the social housing bit they just don't like the idea of it.

[Park Life 71]

On the upside at least there won't be a stampede for locally sourced vegan furniture or Alpine milk hand pulled by Wagnerian virgins at dusk on pristine buttercup adorned slopes.

Edited June 22, 2017 by Park Life

[ewerk 30641]

Surely they should have been aware of the social housing element before buying. If it wasn't the residents of Grenfell then it would have been other low-income residents moving in anyway.