JEREMY CORBYN pressed the Chancellor yesterday to use the Budget this month to fund the retrofitting of sprinklers in all high-rise council housing blocks.
The Labour leader said it is a basic life-saving measure that has been made even more critical after two fatal fires at Grenfell Tower and Lakanal House.
At the launch of Labour’s Make Homes Safe campaign in Hammersmith yesterday, he described the Grenfell fire as an “avoidable tragedy” which would have been prevented had there been adequate safety precautions, including sprinklers.
Building is the solution for much of our housing crisis – and will also help to address poverty, ill health, and even anti-social behaviour and alienation, writes KENNY MacASKILL
Since 2010, one in five firefighter jobs has disappeared alongside 30% funding cuts — all while climate breakdown brings record blazes and flooding. It’s time to fund our fire service properly, writes FBU general secretary STEVE WRIGHT


