England’s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn believes the best way to find housing for the survivors of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire is use existing empty luxury homes. Interviewed on England’s television show Peston on Sunday, Corbyn explained himself by first asking the question, why is it so hard to help the survivors of the Grenfell Tower find temporary lodgings?
It's unimaginable that you watch people burnt to death through the windows of a flat because they can't get out and then you have a very large number of people looking for somewhere to live now because the Royal Borough Council Chelsea doesn't have the capacity to deal with the crisis put another way every day Heathrow planes get delayed. Hundreds of people get stranded airports all over the world. Hotels are found for them immediately. They're sorted out. 400 or so people, still most of them have not got somewhere decent or safe or secure to stay in, somehow or other it seems to be beyond the wit of the public services to deal with the crises facing a relatively small number of people in a country of 65 million.
Pressed on his “controversial” plan to use the empty luxury homes in the area to house the few hundred people needing shelter, Corbyn says this:
Corbyn: There are a large number of deliberately kept vacant flats and properties all over London; it’s called “land banking.” People with a lot of money buy a house, buy a flat, keep it empty--
Peston: --But you would seize it forever or just just take it for as long as they're needed?
Corbyn: Well, occupy, compulsory purchase it, requisition it, there's a lot of things you can do. But can't we as a society just think all of us? It's all very well putting our arms around people during the crisis but there is homelessness is rising the housing crisis is getting worse and my point was quite a simple one: in an emergency you have to bring all assets to the table in order to deal with that crisis and that is what I think we should be doing in this case.
The responses from Labour’s Corbyn and the Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May
have been decidedly different. It’s really all you need to know about the conservative movement both home and abroad. You can watch Corbyn explain his housing issue proposal in the simplest terms below.