Birmingham couple react to cladding crisis following Grenfell Tower tragedy

One Birmingham couple have been reflecting on how the London disaster impacted their lives
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It’s been five years since the deadly Grenfell Tower fire incident.

Seventy-two people died in the London high rise tower block when a fire spread from a kitchen appliance in one apartment due to the building’s cladding - burning for 60 hours before finally being extinguished on 14 June 2017.

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A further 70 individuals were injured in the incident, despite 223 people being able to flee the building.

In the wake of the disaster, inspections were carried out on high-rise buildings across the country to remove more potentially dangerous cladding.

This included at Islington Gates in the Jewellery Quarter.

Jim and Katie IllingworthJim and Katie Illingworth
Jim and Katie Illingworth

Islington Gates apartment complex, located on the banks of the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal by the Jewellery Quarter, was among the first in the country to undergo remediation work following the fatal Grenfell Tower disaster.

Dangerous material, which was different to the cladding used on Grenfell, was found and removed from the nine-storey Islington Gates in April.

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Since then, some residents have been left living in cold and dark homes covered in huge plastic sheets while they wait for the cladding to be replaced with non-flammable material.

The apartments in Islington Gates remain covered in plastic sheeting while residents wait for building works to be completedThe apartments in Islington Gates remain covered in plastic sheeting while residents wait for building works to be completed
The apartments in Islington Gates remain covered in plastic sheeting while residents wait for building works to be completed

‘We were told we were lucky the cladding was taken off’

One of those couples is Jim and Katie Illingworth, who have been living under the plastic sheets for 18 months.

Reflecting on Grenfell, Jim says he was told that they were ‘lucky’ the cladding had been taken off when it did - and spoke out about the tragedy of the people who died before the danger was discovered.

He said: “We would all be living in total ignorance, and it’s a real horrible shame that 72 people died to highlight this total ineptitude and cavalier attitude by the building industry, and the government ministry in charge of it.

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“The engineer said ‘we are stripping off the woodwork’, and he said: ‘you are so lucky we came and stripped it off, because behind it, the cavity barriers weren’t fixed properly and if you had a fire at the bottom of the floor it would have been at the top in five minutes’.”

Birmingham Library was lit up green on Tuesday night (14 June) in support of Greenfell United SurvivorsBirmingham Library was lit up green on Tuesday night (14 June) in support of Greenfell United Survivors
Birmingham Library was lit up green on Tuesday night (14 June) in support of Greenfell United Survivors

Following the inspection and removal of the cladding, residents at Islington Gates applied for a grant from the government’s Building Safety Fund, and although around 80% of the work is covered by the fund, it doesn’t cover all of the costs of the cladding replacement and other fire safety measures.

This has meant that leaseholders have had to fork out thousands of pounds to pay the difference for the removal of materials themselves while waiting in the dark.

Jim says so far, he has spent around £40,000 of his own money on works.

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He says the scaffholding is currently being removed on block one of Islington Gates, but it’s likely the scaffolding on his section of the building will not be removed until December this year.

“At the end of the day the building will be safer - there’s the positive,” he said.

“But everything else is just pretty distressing. We’ve had the damp and the cold because of the lack of insulation – our wallets are being emptied, but you can see maybe a silver lining around a very dark cloud.”

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