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Listeners divided as resident of posh apartment block tells LBC she’ll leave if Grenfell Tower survivors move in

Radio caller's comments shocked radio host!

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For the past two weeks the news has been full of the aftermath of the dreadful Grenfell tower disaster.

Viewers have been glued to TV news desperate to find out if families who were lost in the chaos have been reunited.

The have also been angered as details emerge that the local council’s allegedly inadequate safety checks could have played a big part in the deaths of so many lives.

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But as with tragic moments like this, the general public have shown their generous side and have really pitched in to help, whether it was to let people into their homes or merely download Simon Cowell’s charity record which has been released in aid of the families left without homes or belongings.

But not all people have been as sympathetic to the plight of the surviving victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.

A Kensington and Chelsea resident caused uproar yesterday when she called into a radio station to say that she was horrified that some of the victims were to be rehoused in her luxury block.

The woman, called Donna, told LBC host Shelagh Fogarty said she thought it was very unfair that the Grenfell residents were being re-homed in a plush block where she lives.

“I would feel really resentful if someone got the same thing for free,” the caller said. “I feel sorry for those people but my husband and I work very hard to be able to afford this.

“And for someone to get it free, I would move.”

Fogarty couldn’t believe what she was hearing and said: “You’d move?”

Donna, whose apartment block boasts a swimming pool, explained: “Our council tax bill is very, very high, our service charge bill is very, very high, so why should someone get it for free?

“I know it sounds harsh, believe me I feel sorry for those people, but I work very, very hard and so does my husband.”

Fogarty was sympathetic: “It does sound harsh, you sound hard-hearted.

“Lucky you that you’ve got that money and you haven’t been burned out of your home.”

But Donna stood her ground and replied: “Nobody gives me anything for free, Shelagh.”

Donna isn’t the only local resident angry at the idea of Grenfell survivors being moved into luxury blocks.

Maria, who bought her flat two years ago told the Guardian: “We paid a lot of money to live here, and we worked hard for it.

“Now these people are going to come along, and they won’t even be paying the service charge.”

Another man told the paper: “I’m very sad that people have lost their homes, but there are a lot of people here who have bought flats and will now see the values drop.

“It will degrade things. And it opens up a can of worms in the housing market.”

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But other resident have paid tribute to the victims.

Tweeter Julie Carpenter said: “Personally, I’d rather have the man who carried his neighbour down eleven flights of stairs that night living next to me than this woman.”

While another, Adrian Houghton, said: “Everyone assumes that these people don’t work, some must – and what if they work hard? Does a banker on £100k work harder than a builder on £40k?”


Christian Guiltenane
Freelance Writer

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