On 14th June this year, it will be four years since the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy, and, with the scandal still smouldering, Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett and Councillor Ann-Marie Humphreys brought a motion to the full meeting of Salford City Council last week slating the Government and demanding it does more.
The debate about the motion began on the pages of the Salford Star on 11th March, when tenants living in the nine Pendleton blocks, owned by Salford City Council and managed by Pendleton Together, accused the Mayor of 'hypocrisy' over the motion, which centred on the plight of private leaseholders...*
"Salford Council, our local ward councillors and MP Rebecca Long Bailey have ignored our plight, ignored fire risk assessments, ignored astronomical heating costs, ignored the effect on our mental health and left us to rot..." said one tenant from Malus Court.
It was a theme picked up by Conservative Councillor, Robin Garrido, who called out the "pure hypocrisy" of the Labour Mayor and Councillor when they talk of the suffering of thousands of Salford residents and private leaseholders... "But they've avoided mentioning the tenants of the ill-fated Pendleton Together PFI" he said, adding that social housing tenants living in ForViva properties [in which he has an interest] had cladding removed and replaced and sprinklers installed in every flat, while the Council had "dillied and dallied" in Pendleton.
"The City Mayor is trying to distract us from investigating the problems caused for our own tenants but they will not be distracted because over two hundred tenants have now resorted to legal action" he said, accusing the Mayor of covering up "his own failings by attacking the Government."
In response Deputy Mayor, John Merry said that the Council hadn't received two hundred legal claims from tenants and that it was a "misstatement of facts". In actual fact, the Salford Star believes that there have been around two hundred tenants signed up to the action but there is a only ever a sample of cases brought forward.
Garrido explained that the Government had provided £5billion to make private leaseholder properties safe plus a further £3.5 billion to remove cladding from buildings over 18 metres in height, although Labour councillors pointed out that a figure of £15billion was needed. Private leaseholders in low and mid rise blocks could get a cheap 'cladding' loan which would mean no-one pays more than £50 per month, the Conservative councillor added.
Labour Councillor Dickman accused Garrido of "hypocrisy", as the Council made funds available to remove the cladding only for the Government to block it; while Councillor Merry waded in, accusing the Tories of being "totally hypocritical, weeping crocodile tears over the situation in Pendleton while at the same time it was their Government that perpetuated their particular problem...
"...We are going to do our best to meet the needs and concerns of those tenants" he added "We've done our best..."
Meanwhile, Councillor Gina Reynolds agreed... "I've seen first hand the impact on people's mental health of those living in the nine blocks affected in Pendleton" she said "The fear and anxiety has been unbelievable but for him to say that we haven't done anything for those residents, you know...
"We were the first local authority in the UK to actually take down the first three floors of cladding and put on the cement blocks; we put in the 24 hour fire marshals straight away, audible alarms and robust fire doors; and we conducted safe and well visits for all those residents" she explained "The MP Rebecca Long Bailey, myself and fellow ward councillors all held separate surgeries on all those blocks and supported residents, so for him to say we've done nothing is absolutely outrageous."
Tenants might disagree with these sentiments, particularly on the point of "robust fire doors". Salix Court tenant Cath Wood told the Salford Star recently: "I was told that the fire doors in my flat were old and needed replacing because they wouldn't withstand the heat of a fire. That was three years ago! And they expect us to live here? We're paying to be unsafe and freezing. Basically they don't care..."**
Councillor McIntyre drew attention to the plight of disabled tenants caught in dangerous blocks, while Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett took umbrage to criticism that the Labour motion hadn't referenced social housing...
He said that paragraph 3.3 of the motion (there are 23 paragraphs) does "ask the Chief Executive of Salford City Council to write to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ask Government to accede to those asks articulated in End our Cladding Scandal campaign's 10-step plan..."
Dennett added that one of the ten steps in the Plan - which is not re-printed in the motion - was that social housing has "full and equal access to funding being available by national Government". Therefore, he argued, "This motion absolutely does speak to the plight of people who find themselves caught up in the industrial and regulatory crisis in social housing..."
The motion was passed with the Conservatives abstaining.
For a background see previous Salford Star articles...
* Salford City Council Motion On Cladding Draws Hypocrisy Accusation – click here
** Freezing Salford Tenants Stuck In Pendleton Blocks – click here
The Salford Star understands that at least one tenant living in a freezing flat has been given oil radiators by Pendleton Together and has seen bills cut by a third since the NIBE was out of action...
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