Reading the Grenfell report last month, one of the most rotten things it revealed about the tragedy was the culture and attitude towards social housing tenants. In the years before the 2017 fire, the report says, many Grenfell residents saw their tenant management organisation (TMO) as “an uncaring and bullying overlord, which belittled and marginalised them, regarded them as a nuisance or worse, and simply failed to take their concerns seriously”. Seven years on, things haven’t changed. Time and time again as part of my activism, I go into homes where there are dangerous states of disrepair, safety hazards, accidents waiting to happen – and housing providers that just don’t seem to care enough.
I visited an estate near me in London in 2022, for example, where residents complained of not being able to open fire doors because they were sticking, putting their lives in danger. There was also literally water pouring out of light fixtures and electrical wiring sticking out of the walls, near where children were running around and playing.
