Crawley, thanks to its New Town history, isn’t filled with high rises. Nor are our residential buildings covered with the cladding used at Grenfell. Yet, this is more the result of luck than design and many councils now find themselves having to undertake significant works to existing properties to make them safe.
These works are important, but they come at a real cost and the consequence of that is that money which would have gone towards new local council housing is being lost to patch the gap in our national safety standards. Given our ongoing inability to replace council houses lost through Right-to-Buy and the dire shortage of social housing, this is something the country can I’ll afford.
That’s why Jeremy Corbyn and other Labour representatives are calling on Theresa May to put the funding aside for safety improvements, where needed, because councils shouldn’t have to choose between keeping current tenants safe and putting a roof over the head of other residents.
The party are seeking the public support for this campaign so please visit the website below to mark your voice heard: https://action.labour.org.uk/page/s/make-homes-safe