“My flat flooded three weeks after I moved in, and there have been problems ever since,” Connelly said.
“I’ve had to fight the council to remove asbestos, but it doesn’t end there. Everyone in this block has problems – whatever’s happened to me has happened to my neighbours too. I’ve worked non-stop to get redress, and I’ve become a spokesperson for others too.
“In 2011, I took legal action over the state of my flat and faulty electrics. Shortly after that, I met a mother with a new born baby living in a room covered with damp and mould, which motivated me to keep going.
Social tenants living in Grenfell Tower raised serious safety concerns before the fire, but they were ignored. Two years on, social renters are still are still being failed by poor regulation and people are still fighting to be heard. https://t.co/9rFk93uutb
— Shelter (@Shelter) June 10, 2019
“The injustice of it gets me. We’re let down by the system. That was how the residents of Grenfell were failed – no-one was listening to the them.”
Shelter research showed that the current social housing regulator – which 72 per cent of social tenants said they had never heard of – exists to oversee finances rather than to protect residents.
Natasha Elcock, chair of Grenfell United, said: “People were raising the alarm about fire safety in Grenfell before the fire, but they were ignored and belittled. The current housing regulator did nothing for us, it was entirely invisible. And two years later, despite all the promises, we still hear from people across the country who are not being listened to about their homes.