Read on Twitter
I’ve just handed in my mphil dissertation ! It’s on the Ronan Point scandal of 1968. I found some interesting archive materials that I’d like to share. The disaster gives us a lot to reflect on for welfare policy and building a better leftist future - esp re Grenfell. Thread: /1
Ronan Point was a tower block in Newham. Just 2 months after opening, an entire corner column of the block collapsed. 5 people died, 17 were injured - luckily most residents were asleep in their bedrooms in the central section away from the collapse. /2
Here are some photos of the scene /3 https://www.theguardian.com/society/from-the-archive-blog/gallery/2018/may/16/ronan-point-tower-collapse-may-1968
It exposed scandalous levels of negligence over building standards in high-rise council housing. An Inquiry found that it (and thousands of other buildings nationwide) was built so badly that when one wall was damaged the whole block fell like a ‘house of cards’ -to cut costs. /3
In spite of public outrage and the Inquiry’s recommendation that all these blocks be re-appraised and strengthened, the government consistently sought to evade accountability for the disaster, telling people that they were safe in their homes. /4
Tenants were moved back in to RP & told it had been ‘re-strengthened’. 1,080 people due to be moved onto other identical blocks on the same estate signed a petition to plead the council not to move them see sample photos from the 28 page petition). Their requests were refused. /5
In 1984, tenants in Ronan Point reported cracks, grinding noises, and gaps between wall panels where fire could travel through. After lobbying from the Newham Tower Block Tenant Campaign, the building was at last evacuated. /6
Here’s some great photos of a tenants’ conference to discuss the defects https://twitter.com/TowerBlocksUK/status/1188400895500926976
When it was demolished, appalling structural defects were uncovered. Many joints had been filled with cigarette packets, tin cans, and newspaper during construction. One of the newspapers found was from 1972 - meaning it was packed DURING the apparent ‘re-strengthening’! /8
Here are some fragments from the demolition showing the terrible building quality
The government admitted in 1984 that it did not have records of whether any other blocks nationwide had been reassessed or strengthened after Ronan Point - something that it has still failed to clarify today. /10
@TowerBlocksUK and @LedburyAction are doing amazing and tireless work today to lobby the government to evacuate these blocks - see their great film with @TRCdocumentary on identical issues in the Ledbury Estate which have been left unrepaired for decades
Thousands of people across Britain are still living in tower blocks with terrible structural defects which put them at risk of progressive collapse, wind damage, and fire. At least 575 blocks can be identified, housing 100,000 people. The government is still dithering! /12
See here: /13 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tower-blocks-collapse-risk-grenfell-safety-government-a8592436.html
I’ve been appalled at the level of governmental negligence, evasion, and condescension displayed towards tenants by the British state - and damningly this is mainly under Harold Wilson’s LABOUR government. /14
Going forward from this? Ronan Point offers us lessons for the future of Labour politics. It demonstrates how social democracy can fail if state planning is too top-down, rigid, insufficiently democratic, and makes no efforts to consult or respond to grassroots actors. /15
These issues were leveraged by the Thatcherite right to discredit social democracy/public ownership and to privatise council housing. Poorly built examples of high rise have been weaponised by the right ever since, as a way to stigmatise estates and the people who live there. /16
On the left, we need to forcefully respond to this, especially as it becomes clearer than ever that we desperately need more social housing, and at higher quality. /17
Danielle Gregory (w @LedburyAction) says: ‘My worst fear is all these estates will eventually be demolished and replaced with mainly private apartments... If a massive safety problem ends up leading to a massive loss of social housing, then it’s a kind of double punishment.’ /18
The Ronan Point scandal teaches us what our visions of a leftist future need to look like in 21st century Britain - localist, consultative, and grassroots-based with an unflinching commitment to high-quality collective welfare provision./19
