In a well-intentioned reaction to last year’s Grenfell tragedy, Wandsworth council in south London has decided to retrofit sprinklers in all 100 of its tower blocks. Most of London’s fire engines can only pump water as high as 10 storeys (30m) so the move seems, at first glance, to make sense.

Unfortunately, in the council’s understandable haste to mitigate the risks of any future disaster, it has managed to forget one of the most important lessons of Grenfell; it has failed to listen to residents. An estimated 6,466 residents live in Wandsworth’s towers and a large number feel they haven’t been consulted properly and that the council’s move is a kneejerk reaction.

Residents point out that each block has different needs and that there are questions about the proposed installation that have not been addressed. Existing recommendations from previous fire inspections have not been implemented yet and we await the findings of the Grenfell inquiry.

Leaseholders who own former council properties in the blocks are also facing bills of at least £4,000 for sprinklers they might not want. The council is even using money from its housing budget, collected in part from tenants and leaseholders, to fight a case brought by leaseholders who don’t feel it is fair.

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In May, Dame Judith Hackitt’s report into fire safety said “consultation and involvement in decision-making processes have consistently been raised as key areas where change is required”. If the council is successful at its tribunal hearing, it is likely to go ahead with the sprinklers without much delay and other councils will treat what happens in Wandsworth, long a testbed for Conservative housing policy, as a precedent.

The Labour group in Wandsworth – which in May narrowly failed to take control of the council for the first time in 40 years and of which I am a part – is neither arguing for or against sprinklers. Labour is simply demanding that residents be listened to. If sprinklers are essential for safety, the cost shouldn’t be pushed on to leaseholders. If they are not, then they should only be installed where residents want them. A large petition is being gathered from residents of the affected blocks demanding the council listens to those it exists to serve. Labour is holding a public meeting on Sunday, something I would have have hoped the council would have done itself.

The paternalistic way the council is treating its tower block residents is part of the reason so many people are turned off by all forms of politics. On some estates, turnout at local elections is regularly below 10%. Many people living at the coalface of public policy and fabricated austerity don’t feel that politics is something they engage with, it’s something that happens to them.

The turnout in the last local elections was reasonably high in Wandsworth but in most wards fewer than 50% of people voted. How can we claim our democracy works when half of those who can vote see no point? I’ve heard many politicians bemoan the “apathy” of marginalised communities but it’s not our job to be interested in politics, it’s the job of politicians to speak, and more importantly listen, to us.

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It’s not that we are hard to reach, we often live right in the middle of cities. It’s not that we are voiceless, it’s that no one is listening.

Politics is largely conducted by a group of people who don’t share the same life experiences as those living in social housing. Wandsworth has more than 17,000 tenants but I am the only council tenant among 60 councillors who look after the borough. No matter how well-meaning, making decisions about people’s lives when they are not in the room is what leads to oversights and errors. Almost 30% of Wandsworth is black, Asian or minority ethnic but I’m one of only four BAME councilors.

This isn’t a partisan point; all political parties have a long way to go when it comes to being truly representative of the communities they aim to serve. Political structures are deliberately obtuse and a lack of transparency, obscure formalities, three-letter acronyms and general pomposity serve to alienate huge swaths of the population.

Grenfell Tower fire was foreseeable, says barrister for the bereaved – as it happened Read more

This unintentional social cleansing takes place in most other aspects of civic or civil society. Whether on residents’ associations, charity boards, community groups or as parent governors there is still a stubborn lack of cultural and income diversity. At the same time, people are often active in their communities looking after those in need, doing chores for those who can’t, checking on neighbours, or generally being community-spirited. Moving away is not really an option so social tenants are often more invested in improving their environments than most.

Last spring I was happy for my political involvement to extend no further than cheering from the sidelines. I was interested in politics but decided that politicians were just not my kind of people. Then Grenfell happened and everything changed. Listening to my neighbours and the people I grew up with, it was clear that to many of those wielding power we were invisible at best and a problem to be solved at worst. I decided that if I had the opportunity to stand for the council I should take it. In May, after living in social housing in Wandsworth my entire life, I was elected as a councillor for Queenstown, one of the poorest wards.

From my brief glimpse under the bonnet of our political system, I can see that many councillors and officers genuinely want to create more inclusive structures. They realise that systems need to change but political structures that have been around for centuries are not likely to change overnight. It starts with listening.