Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire have widened their campaign against the marginalisation of council tenants, raising concerns that others are being treated in the same way as they were before the disaster.

Nicholas Burton, whose wife, Pily, died as a result of the fire on 14 June 2017, and Edward Daffarn, who escaped from the 16th floor, are helping residents at nine council-owned tower blocks in Salford, Greater Manchester, that were refurbished using similar combustible cladding at the same time as Grenfell.

Britain flouting human rights over Grenfell-style cladding Read more

They have heard claims from tenants that their concerns about safety were not being handled properly. After he visited the Pendleton estate and spoke to residents, Burton said: “It’s just like turning back the clock.”

Pendleton Together, the social landlord that looks after the blocks for Salford city council, has so far removed the lower three storeys of cladding on most of the blocks.

Residents understand that the project to replace the cladding and install sprinklers could take up to two years. They have warned they are losing sleep and are scared about the possibility of fire. Last month, Pendleton Together told inhabitants of Spruce Court, a 22-storey tower, that they must keep their windows closed until further notice because of problems.

“What we went through with the tenants management organisation and the council, they are going through similar difficulties,” said Burton. “They are not being listened to. After the tragedy of Grenfell, you would think people in authority would take a little bit more care in listening to their residents.”

Pendleton Together said it completely rejected any comparison to the situation at Grenfell Tower. A spokesman for the landlord said: “Pendleton Together remains open to discussing any concerns with residents and encourage reporting of them, via a dedicated email address set up for this purpose or through our normal customer reporting systems.”

Flat owners have to pay £3m recladding cost of two Manchester blocks Read more

It said concerns had been raised only by a minority of tenants and that some of them were unfounded.

But anxiety among residents is running high. Leaseholders in two privately owned blocks in Manchester lost a property tribunal case which means they, rather than the freeholder Pemberstone, will have to pay the estimated £3m cost of replacing flammable cladding – about £10,000 per flat. The residents of Vallea Court and Cypress Place in the city’s Green Quarter have voiced fears that a fire at the base of their building could start a major blaze.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest At Cypress Place in Manchester, residents must pay aboout £10,000 per flat to replace flammable cladding. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

The blocks are among 474 residential buildings more than 18 metres tall across England and Wales thought to be wrapped in combustible cladding. Only 17 are known to have been completely fixed and there is continued uncertainty about when the rest will be made safe.

In the wake of the Grenfell fire, Theresa May voiced concern about tenants’ views being ignored. In a speech in March, the prime minister said “concerns not being acted on, voices not being listened to, needs being ignored” are “all too familiar to tenants in all kinds of homes across the country”.

Elizabeth Okpo, a resident of Spruce Court, said the fact that combustible cladding was still in place was not the only problem. Fire alarms installed in flats which are supposed to alert the building’s security team did not always function properly and fire sounders on the landings were not loud enough for people in their flats to hear, so residents have slept through them.

“There are children in the block on the 11th and 18th floors and we have people who are disabled on the 21st floor,” Okpo said. “These type of people are going to struggle to get down.”

Residents had started to draw up a list of vulnerable neighbours so they could try to help people evacuate in the event of a fire, she said.

Pendleton Together said the alarms were set to the volume limit allowed under law in communal areas and there were 24-hour patrols by fire marshals with klaxons.

Okpo also claimed Pendleton Together had made it harder for residents to form an association by failing to provide access to the community room in their tower for meetings. The landlord said it offered Okpo an alternative room 650 metres from the tower.

“How we were treated and dismissed seems to be the same [as Grenfell],” Okpo said.



At Daffarn’s suggestion, Okpo has started a blog, Spruce Court Action. Daffarn was co-author of the Grenfell Action Blog that chronicled concerns about Kensington and Chelsea council, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation and the 2014-16 refurbishment of Grenfell Tower.

Eight months before the fire, Daffarn and Francis O’Connor wrote that “only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord”.

Burton was a member of the leaseholders association at Grenfell that raised multiple concerns about the the 2014-2016 refurbishment.

Other residents of the Salford towers have started a blog – Thorn and Pendleton Blog News – tracking their concerns.

“My heart is overwhelmed by the thought that Grenfell two is in the post,” said Burton. “There are hundreds of towers all over the country and people are not sleeping properly.”

• This article was amended on 24 August 2018 because an earlier version referred to Lendlease as the freeholder of Vallea Court and Cypress Place in Manchester’s Green Quarter. Lendlease sold the freehold to Pemberstone in 2015, and the tribunal was between Pemberstone and the leaseholders.