In the United Kingdom, the Grenfell Tower disaster1 and its aftermath shows up landlords’ poor treatment of social housing tenants — from their most basic shelter needs, up to and including the safety of their lives. Adding insult to devastating injury, there has in recent years been little concern given to tenant opinion. The customer is not so much always right or always wrong, just always ignored. We’re not talking black-hatted, moustache-twiddling landlord-villains of early Hollywood movie fame here. The landlords in question are either supposedly competent and caring local government councils, or their representatives.
Finally there is action to bring social housing landlords to account. A report triggered by the Grenfell fire, some three years in the making, includes steps to ensure that U.K. housing tenants have a greater say in managing their homes, whether socially or privately rented.
There has been some disappointment in this report, in spite of its positive notes about tenant involvement. Activists were hoping to see something more concrete than mere warnings about the lack of sufficient housing, something which virtually everyone in the country is aware of. Read more in the BBC: Post-Grenfell social housing reforms unveiled
