Mutual Aid - A message from the Leader of Barnet Council

Leader of Barnet Council - Richard Cornelius

The tragic events we recently witnessed with the Grenfell Tower fire have made councils up and down the country take an urgent look at their housing stock.Our number one priority throughout this process has always been about ensuring that residents are safe in their homes.

The way people rallied around to help the residents of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in their time of need showed how Londoners show such indomitable spirit in times of crisis. This extends to support between London Councils. We have a robust and strong resilience network in the Capital that offers assistance between boroughs when they need it most. The Grenfell Tower fire was no exception in that respect. We were one of the many London councils that supported the emergency response.  By providing our experienced Emergency Planning and social care staff, we played our part in managing an extremely difficult situation.

This mutual aid also extended to our neighbours in Camden, when they evacuated thousands of residents in response to concerns about the safety of cladding on a number of their tower blocks.
This work is ongoing. We still have social workers on the ground in West London helping the families that have been made homeless as a result of the fire that engulfed the high-rise tower block. In some cases, this assistance can be as simple as booking taxis to get children to school or by arranging viewings of potential new homes.

However simple; it all helps and make London so unique and well-prepared when it comes to dealing with a crisis am extremely proud of the support and help that we and others offered to a fellow London borough.

To read more about our response to the Grenfell Tower fire, please read the following update.

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This statement was originally published on the Barnet Council website