‘Disgraceful’ treatment of social tenants and stigma they face must change, deputy PM says
Good morning. Angela Rayner, the housing secretary and deputy prime minister, has been doing an interview round this morning. She has a lot in her portfolio but, understandably, most of the questions were about the Grenfell Tower fire report out yesterday. Here are some of the main lines.
Rayner said the report highlighted the “disgraceful” treatment of social tenants. She told the Today programme she wanted to see a “cultural shift to empowering people”. She went on:
I think the people of Grenfell were dismissed and not listened to and were not empowered as tenants.
And I think that we’ve got to make sure that greed and profit is not put above safety …
She said she wanted to the police and the Crown Prosecution Service as “as quickly as possible” to bring people to justice over the fire, but she said it was an “incredibly complex investigation”.
She said that money was available to remove dangerous cladding still on tower blocks and that there was “no excuse” for building owners not acting. She told BBC Breakfast:
At the moment, there’s £5bn that’s available for remediation, so I don’t accept that the money’s not there. And these companies, the people that own these buildings, have financial resources as well. I don’t accept that there is not the money to do this remediation … There’s no excuse to not do this work now.
She suggested she would pass a new law to speed up the removal of dangerous cladding. She told Times Radio:
I am determined to make sure that our remediation acceleration plan comes forward with, if we need changes to legislation, which I believe we will, especially in light of the report findings that we have got now which we will have to go through and to ensure that we do everything we possibly can to speed this up.
Continue reading… The Guardian Read More ‘Disgraceful’ treatment of social tenants and stigma they face must change, deputy PM saysGood morning. Angela Rayner, the housing secretary and deputy prime minister, has been doing an interview round this morning. She has a lot in her portfolio but, understandably, most of the questions were about the Grenfell Tower fire report out yesterday. Here are some of the main lines.Rayner said the report highlighted the “disgraceful” treatment of social tenants. She told the Today programme she wanted to see a “cultural shift to empowering people”. She went on:I think the people of Grenfell were dismissed and not listened to and were not empowered as tenants.And I think that we’ve got to make sure that greed and profit is not put above safety …She said she wanted to the police and the Crown Prosecution Service as “as quickly as possible” to bring people to justice over the fire, but she said it was an “incredibly complex investigation”.She said that money was available to remove dangerous cladding still on tower blocks and that there was “no excuse” for building owners not acting. She told BBC Breakfast:At the moment, there’s £5bn that’s available for remediation, so I don’t accept that the money’s not there. And these companies, the people that own these buildings, have financial resources as well. I don’t accept that there is not the money to do this remediation … There’s no excuse to not do this work now.She suggested she would pass a new law to speed up the removal of dangerous cladding. She told Times Radio:I am determined to make sure that our remediation acceleration plan comes forward with, if we need changes to legislation, which I believe we will, especially in light of the report findings that we have got now which we will have to go through and to ensure that we do everything we possibly can to speed this up. Continue reading…
