Appeal for victims of Grenfell Tower

Thank you for the information on how we can help Mandy.

I have made a donation, I hope many more Property118 readers will do so too.
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When you go to the link there are quite a few options regarding whom to send the money to. Any recommendations regarding the most trustworthy one?

I’m sure they are all legitimate but I went with this one https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/time_to_help/grenfelltowerfire

I have just checked though and the target funding has now been reached. However, they appear to be accepting over-funding
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A truly terrible disaster, I cannot imagine the grief of those who not only lost loved ones but in some cases were actually in contact with them at the same time.

Urgent steps must be taken to work our what went wrong. However I am concerned that Corbyn and some segments of the press have been jumping on the anti-landlord band waggon. The property in the past may have not been invested in, BUT it had just had a 9-10 million pound refurbishment – at 200 units that is a huge £50 k each. That does not sound like neglect to me and is a sum that no private landlord would undertake lightly.

We must hope that political emotions & threats of legal action, do not slow down the search for what went wrong for the sake of the families and people living in similarly refurbished blocks.

Its is heartbreaking what has happened to those who lived at Grenfell Tower.
The pressure that is put on Social Landlords with new schemes such landlord licencing yet it appears that Local Authority Housing is not regulated.
In 2017 with fire regulations put in place things like this should not be happening.

Reply to the comment left by “Paul Suffolk” at “16/06/2017 – 12:49“:

I think you’ll find that the £10M spent was on putting the acm cladding on the outside. This has been referred to as a ‘vanity project’ – just to make the building look good. And, without pre-empting the findings of any enquiry – it was this material that so readily caught alight, turning Grenfell Tower into an inferno within minutes.

Without it, it has been argued, the fridge/cooker fire that started it would have been contained within the one flat.

Also – at £50k per flat – you’d think the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea could have prioritised sprinklers, emergency stair lighting and fire alarms!

I don’t think its fair just to single out Corbyn for his comments – the right-whinge press have been happily swiping at Sadiq Khan, as though he personally put the fire hazard up!

This is a heartwrenching tragedy which could have seen much less loss of life if better fire precautions had been in place. I am sure we will all want to support the victims.
Whatever the refurbishment, one failure is the alarm system which applied to individual flats and which many evacuees reported not hearing, plus (according to the news) the flamability of the external cladding. (this is a potential concern for anyone who has had external wall insulation), furthermore, despite recommendations of the coroners of previous tragedies sprinkler systems have not been retrofitted to older council tower blocks.
However private landlords with converted flats at 3 plus storeys have been required to retrofit L2 (hardwired with sounders throughout the building) fire alarms since about 1996, and to fireproof the means of escape for 30-60 minutes.
If this rule had applied to council and housing association flats more people could have been warned in time to evacuate. We should push for equal safety standards for private and public/housing association tenants.

My donation is to the Red Cross. I do not trust any other funding campaign to be properly administered although I accept the intention is good. Will it be a trust? Has it been set up as a charity? Also high profile disaster generates high level of support, out of proportion to need but less newsworthy ones do not.

Reply to the comment left by “Puzzler ” at “17/06/2017 – 09:23“:

I agree and was glad to see the Red Cross is now also involved (although even there I haven’t looked into the ins and outs such as the chief executive’s salary etc).