Jeremy Corbyn demanded the requisitioning of empty luxury properties to house survivors left homeless by the Grenfell Tower blaze as he called for wholesale social reform in the wake of the disaster.

The Labour leader said the fire, which engulfed the council-owned tower in the wealthy London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, had exposed a “tale of two cities”. “Properties must be found, requisitioned if necessary, to make sure those residents do get rehoused locally,” he told a parliamentary debate. “It cannot be acceptable that in London you have luxury buildings and flats kept as land banking for the future while the homeless and the poor look for somewhere to live.”

Widespread requisitioning, when the government seizes private land, was last seen between the First