London lives on hold as housing concerns rise
In Canning Town, three housing blocks have been evacuated over serious concerns regarding structural problems. These blocks were part of a project that is under ten years old, having been built in 2017. Housing being sparse as it is, especially in London where over 350,000 people are on waiting lists, why has nothing been done to hold developers to a higher standard? In Stratford, a block was evacuated over a similar issue, regarding the design of transfer slabs, as well as in Woking where residents who were evacuated have been left in ‘limbo’ for three years.
When we begin to view housing and necessities as commodities, as tenders and as investments to make profit, it becomes easy for a few bad people to cause serious damage to the livelihoods of those reliant on those same services. The evacuation impacted 211 households, who are now in temporary accommodation, but it is too soon to say if they will ever be able to return as the issue is one that needs a total reassessment of the structural integrity of the blocks. 211 households who no longer have a home. When issues with large development projects arise, it is hard to pinpoint the blame; there are several large teams dealing with several aspects of the development, who will all seek to avoid having any responsibility. Despite this, we can all agree that there is a serious lack of support and transparency, towards those impacted by the actions of several third parties seeking to make a profit.
When essentials are financially incentivised, there is a deep criticism that must arise. Developers seek to please shareholders and investors, which can lead to designs with quite obvious compromises being approved. These examples are just some of the hurriedly built buildings that have the transfer slab design used in the UK since around 2000. They only came under scrutiny after new legislation was passed following the Building Safety Act 2022, the same act that was introduced and revised following the Grenfell Tower tragedy. It took the deaths of 72 individuals to scrutinise and condemn designs that have existed for over two decades, and they are now directly impacting households in the UK, rendering even private homes at risk.
In future we must ask ourselves, even though it may be profitable to turn a blind eye, is it worth the potential consequences? This is not a critique of the building business, rather a criticism of just how little we may understand of the impact we make when seeking to carve out a living for ourselves. Everyone wants to do well, everyone would like to survive, but is it worth jeopardising the lives of countless others in order to get there? When essential infrastructure is seen as something to make profit from, though there are many benefits, it becomes easy to forget that these are essentials; society is dependent on housing to be built to a good standard, and that when something goes wrong those in charge are held democratically accountable, something that is yet to be established in the case of the Royal Gateway development.