Morning Briefing: angry Grenfell residents demand answers

In the news

There was a highly charged meeting for Grenfell Tower residents last night that has been covered by a number of papers, including The Independent.

Inside Housing was at the meeting in which the council tried to talk about the small steps they are taking, such as clearing up broken windows from the tower, and take questions from residents. But it quickly descended into chaos with grieving residents shouting “arrest someone!”.

In a sign of the level of anger directed at the council, the police had been drafted in to chair the meeting. Elizabeth Campbell, the new leader of the council after Nicholas Paget-Brown was forced to step down, was shouted at to “speak up!” and residents berated her for not coming to see them in the temporary accommodation where they are staying.

In response to her reassurance that the council was there to listen, one resident said: “Everyone in this room has probably attended about 50 meetings and we always hear ‘we’re listening’. We don’t get paid, you do, so you need to tell us what the plan is. You have to understand, you guys aren’t aliens, you’re humans – you know what people need. Stop saying you’re listening; do your job and do it properly.”

In a House of Commons debate on the Grenfell Tower fire yesterday, shadow secretary of state for housing John Healey criticised the government’s cladding testing process, which has only tested 224 cladding samples out of a possible 530. Mr Healey also said social landlords could end up delaying remedial work on cladding, The Guardian reported, because the government has not committed to fully funding the work. Damian Green, work and pensions secretary, who stood in for Theresa May, said the government would make sure any social landlord that cannot afford the work would be covered.

Here is our report on the debate.