Following the tragic and avoidable disaster at Grenfell Tower in West London Rochester and Strood MP Kelly Tolhurst has been engaging with mhs homes to ensure the safety of high rises in the constituency.
Recently, the Prime Minister in the House of Commons stated that there are around 600 high rise buildings across England with the cladding and insulation suspected of combustion. However, it has been confirmed by mhs homes that their high rise buildings in Medway contains no cladding of the kind associated with Grenfell and reviews have taken place around internal safety measures.
Kelly has prioritised the need for ensuring local high rises meet all the essential safety features. The Government has already instructed all social landlord to perform additional fire safety check on these tower blocks working in co-operation with local fire and rescue services.
Following communication with mhs homes who manage Medway’s high rises, Kelly welcomed their work over the last year and beyond to ensure high standards of safety and protection. For instance, over £100,000 was recently spent on upgrading fire doors in all buildings.
Kelly said,
“The disaster at Grenfell Tower was deeply upsetting and will change the management of social housing forever once we have the answers to many searching questions.
“Without the bravery and determination of our fire and rescue services we could no doubt be looking at greater fatalities, but it should not have to come to this in the first place.
“The fire safety checks are important no matter the size of the building so I would also like to urge all social landlords to review their fire safety measures. I will continue to work closely with mhs homes in the coming weeks and months to ensure all checks and tests are made in all our local high rises.”
A copy of a letter sent by mhs homes to all local high rise residents can be viewed here: https://www.mhs.org.uk/about-us/news/2017/june/16/a-letter-to-residents/
Mhs' response to Kelly's line of questioning following the disaster and return to parliament can be viewed below.