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MP calls on government to help cover Ledbury fire safety costs
The government should pay for residents on the Ledbury Estate to be rehoused and other fire safety work, local MP Harriet Harman has said.
In a letter sent today to communities secretary Sajid Javid, Ms Harman, MP for Camberwell and Peckham, where the tower blocks are situated, said she is “very concerned” Southwark Council will be forced to pay the costs of rehousing residents and refurbishing blocks by “taking money away from other vital estate improvement works in the borough”.
Ms Harman said the Labour-led council is “doing their best… but their grant has been cut by half since 2010 and they are now having to find money for unprecedented and vast emergency fire safety and gas safety work and costs arising”.
The council turned off the gas at the four tower blocks that make up the Ledbury Estate last week over fire safety concerns. Residents have been forced to take showers at the local leisure centre and cook with hot plates.
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Initially the council said residents would be moved out temporarily over the next few weeks and months, but they now plan to install immersion heaters and electric cookers and move out residents next year to carry out major fire safety work.
The council has said it will give £5,800 to any residents who wish to move now to help towards moving costs.
Mr Javid has previously said councils should fund any fire safety work themselves but the government will “ensure that financial barriers don’t prevent essential fire safety work from being done”.
He recently said in parliament that no councils had requested financial help to carry out fire safety work in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire. His department was forced to correct him after Inside Housing reported that several councils had requested financial help.
