Tragedy reveals vicious class war of the rich against the rest
By
Theo Russell
Extraordinary
events have taken place in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea,
Britain’s wealthiest borough, in the weeks since the Grenfell Tower tragedy: a
town hall invasion, the resignations of the borough's Chief Executive and Tory
Council Leader, and the Tory-led council under siege from every side.
These events followed close on the heels
of the election of a Labour MP for the first time since the constituency was
created in 1974.
But the Grenfell Tower fire has also had a
massive political impact nationally, showing that the reality of the Tory
austerity policy is a vicious class war being waged by the rich against the
rest.
Grenfell, together with Labour's superb
general election campaign, which made austerity the number one issue, has helped
to trigger a national debate about endless cuts, inequality and class
injustice.
Now Britain’s massive housing crisis,
criminally high rents, rampant property speculation, and growing anger,
especially in London, with ‘gentrification’ and ‘social cleansing’, are under
the spotlight.
Finally, the Grenfell fire has exposed a
deliberately created system that provides genuine health and safety for the
rich but not for the poor. Endless chains of sub-contracting and downgrading of
checks made a tragedy like Grenfell virtually inevitable, and the only surprise
was the horrific form in which it came.
‘The regal poor of
Kensington’
Grenfell
was the main topic at a recent meeting of Kensington South Labour Party, which
heard how this class war is being waged in Kensington and Chelsea, not only
against the poorest in the community but against anyone getting in the way of
insatiable property speculators. The council not only turned a blind eye to
this but actively encouraged it, and now they are paying the price.
Long before this awful tragedy in which
over 80 people died and many more were injured, the council had been trying to
‘retake’ the Grenfell estate, and if possible move its tenants out of the
borough and sell it off to developers for eye-watering sums.
Even in the wealthiest parts of the
borough, home-owners who bought properties long ago, and statutory tenants with
controlled rents, have been bullied and intimidated by property developers, who
threatened to take them to the High Court if they don't sell up for a third of
the current market price.
Sadly many, especially the elderly, caved
in at the threat of legal action instead of challenging these sharks in the
courtroom, including one family resident for over 100 years. Such residents
have been dubbed ‘the regal poor of Kensington’, living in ‘shabby gentility’.
No doubt their experiences contributed to
the loss of the Tory Kensington MP in the general election, alongside the fact
that so many local properties are owned by absentee speculators who don’t even
bother to register to vote.
Despite public Tory claims to have built
690 low-cost housing units since 2010, in fact none have been built since 1980.
As a result there is nowhere to re-house the Grenfell survivors in the borough,
whilst thousands of other homeless families languish on the waiting list.
Most of the Grenfell survivors have been
put in hotels and B&Bs, and many offered permanent housing far away from
their workplaces and schools. Under immense political and public pressure, the
council has pledged to buy new family houses for them but have not said where
these will be.
The meeting heard that residents in a
recent luxury flat development in the borough showed their naked class
prejudice, complaining that placing Grenfell survivors there was “bringing the
social level down”.
The meeting also heard of the desperate
Tory attempts in Kensington to stave off Labour candidate Emma Dent Coad’s
victory, which came two days and three recounts after the election. Tory
so-called ‘golden thugs’ harassed and intimidated council staff, standing
behind them issuing threats and accusations. Unable to accept the result, the
Tories wanted a fourth recount and only gave in when Labour observers called in
a senior lawyer who warned the ‘thugs’ that they could be prosecuted.
Sadiq Khan
disappointment
Labour’s
2017 manifesto was very positive on housing, promising “the biggest council
building programme for at least 30 years,” to allow councils to build new
housing and to bring back long-term security for tenants. But the meeting also
heard that the new London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s housing policy was proving a huge
disappointment.
Khan said very little on housing in his
2016 election campaign, and now councils across London are eagerly awaiting his
GLA [Greater London Assembly] housing and regeneration strategy – but this it
seems has already been watered down. Khan has already approved new projects
with only 6–7 per cent ‘affordable’ homes (these are at rents not far below
private commercial levels).
Last year Khan was nominated Evening Standard Man of the Year by
building company Berkeley Homes, who have been denounced by Greenwich Labour MP
Clive Efford for "sheer naked greed and opportunism" for their £1bn
redevelopment of Kidbrooke Village. Efford said: “We constantly hear of the
demands of the developer but there's precious little about what they are doing
for the local community."
Khan has also reneged on his campaign
promise not to increase public transport fares in London, freezing only some
fares but not those for the great majority of travelcard tube users. London’s
tube fares are the highest in the world after eight successive years of
increases under Tory Mayor Boris Johnson.
But the struggles for justice for the
Grenfell survivors, and for a return to mass building of genuinely affordable
homes, are now in full swing. Kensington South Labour Party, which is working
closely with the Justice4Grenfell campaign, has called on members and
supporters to maintain constant pressure on the council to ensure that the
Grenfell survivors are not dispersed far and wide outside the borough.
