Hattie (not her real name) co-owns a flat with her sister in a newish block in Bethnal Green.

Purchased eight years ago, they used the Conservatives' Help to Buy Scheme, which paid the interest on her mortgage for five years.

Then Grenfell happened. Then Covid. Then Truss.

Her block was declared unsafe and is now wrapped in plastic-clad scaffolding which casts a perma-gloom in her flat.

Life is now in limbo: a nightmare of scant information, no certainty over who is responsible for the remediation work, timescales, or what the final bill will be.

A grotesque pass-the-parcel of blame and responsibility rumbles on while all Hattie wants to do is move on.

Inside Housing Magazine, estimates that “… there are likely to be more than 600,000 [Hatties] in affected tall buildings and millions more in medium rise towers“.

David Winskill has a friend who is struggling living in a home deemed unsafeDavid Winskill has a friend who is struggling living in a home deemed unsafe (Image: Archant)

In my own borough, the dogged Paul Burnham (Defend Haringey Council Housing) has used an FoI to establish that all 80 of Haringey’s blocks with five or more storeys have, to varying extents, issues which include “… defective fire doors, compartmentation breaches, and combustible external wall systems“. These are described as "life critical" fire safety defects.

It is unlikely that these are the only problematic blocks in north London,

For 14 years, the Tory government protected the private sector and ignored cautions and protests when they lit the bonfire of red tape.

Eyes are now on Labour to respond incisively to a nightmare that has already gone on for too long. However, it wasn’t a good look when dozens of MPs left the Chamber before the PM’s Grenfell statement on September 4.

Infected blood, Hillsborough, Windrush, polluted rivers, Post Office – all these and many other failures of greed, prejudice, regulation and governance can take generations of campaigning, lobbying, begging and being gaslit just to get the attention of legislators.

Both Sir Kier Starmer and Angela Rayner are said to be on the case, with Rayner saying: "This government has got to make sure that we accelerate remediation."

Labour must cut through the buck passing and obfuscation, listen to those affected and use all the powers of the state to insist on (or impose) a speedy solution. I hope that our local MPs are applying pressure in the right quarters.

Quite reasonably, Hattie and her fellow leaseholders and tenants all want their lives back.

  • David Winskill is a campaigner from Crouch End.