On the 20th of February 2024 Barry appeared on BBC Newsnight opposite Leader of the SNP in the House of Commons, Stephen Flynn, to explain why he will be voting for an immediate ceasefire.
All the aid aegencies in Gaza say “they have never seen anything like this in 25 years”.
It is “morally wrong” what is happening in Gaza and it must end.
Today, Wednesday the 21st of February 2024, Barry will vote for an immediate ceasefire.
On Tuesday the 20th of February 2024 Barry spoke against the Conservative government’s Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill which would make Britain “colder and poorer”.
Barry described the bill as a "20th century piece of legislation” stating that it will be left to a future government to fix our “broken energy system”.
Barry Gardiner speaks to housing activist and author Kwajo Tweneboa about social housing, leasehold and the “exploitation” of Britain’s housing sector.
Follow Kwajo on X (formerly Twitter) here: @Kwajotweneboa
Watch LEASEHOLD a documentary by Barry Gardiner here.
On the 8th of February 2023 Labour announced that it would water down its flagship £28bn spending pledge on green policies.
“Economically Illiterate. Environmentally Irresponsible. Politically Naïve. This is the sad truth about the £28bn U-turn The USA has shown a Green Prosperity Plan is the way to grow the economy, reduce the share of debt to GDP. And get people excited about a cleaner safer future” - Barry Gardiner
On Wednesday the 7th of February BBC London reported on the Elm Road fire, which resident Marianne says “could have been another grenfell”
"Safety of the Residents was not [Octavia’s] number one consideration” said Barry.
David Talbot, an Octavia Housing resident who lived with his wife Jacqueline in a block connected to the one that caught fire, added that flammable cladding on the flats looked “like a matchbox waiting to go up”.
Barry Gardiner has stated his belief that Octavia had “chosen to engage in a protracted dispute” with Vistry, the developer of the block, rather than remove the cladding itself, despite being aware for years that “Grenfell-style” combustible cladding was on the building.
The Labour MP also accused the London landlord of “sitting on their hands” after he repeatedly raised concerns about the building’s safety defects months before a fire engulfed the block in flames.
Read the full article in Inside Housing here.
On the 6th of February ITV did a report on the Elm Road fire, where 70 resident were evacuated.
The report speaks to Samantha, a resident on Elm Court Road and Barr y Gardiner MP. Samantha said she will “never feel safe again”.
Octavia “needs to step in” and cover the cost of all the possessions people lost, either in the fire or from subsequent water damage - Barry Gardiner
Barry Gardiner claimed that the incident showed the “lessons of Grenfell” have not been learned.
He said he had written to the block’s owners, Octavia Housing, “repeatedly” and met with the CEO last November after constituents complained of fire safety flaws.
Mr Gardiner told the Standard: “I think what is so shocking is that we know that the cladding on this building is similar to the cladding at Grenfell. They’ve known for three years now that this was the case.
"And they have not got it sorted. I’ve been writing letters, emails repeatedly. It is just an atrocious example that shows the lessons from Grenfell have not been learned.”
Mr Gardiner held a meeting with residents, London Fire Brigade (LFB) and Octavia Housing staff at the Brent Civic Centre.
He said it had emerged that “fire alarms had failed to go off, police had incorrectly advised residents to ‘stay put’ in their flats and Octavia Housing had failed to repair gas boilers and appliances for over six months”.
Read the full article in the Evening Standard here.
Last week a block of flats on Elm Road in my Brent North constituency caught fire. It took five hours, 125 firefighters and 20 fire engines to bring the fire under control. Thankfully, it was not another Grenfell – all residents were evacuated to safety – but the reason the fire spread so quickly was because, six years on from that tragedy, this building still had Grenfell-style combustible cladding on the outside.
Octavia Housing, who own the block of flats, attended a residents meeting which we held three days later. The acting Chief Executive was keen to assure everyone that Octavia’s “top concern, was residents’ safety”. However, the truth is that for the past three years Octavia have known about the combustible cladding but have instead engaged in a protracted dispute with the original developers, Vistry, rather than get on and remove the cladding themselves and argue about who ought to pay for it, later.
This is the very sort of legal wrangling that Michael Gove’s Building Safety Act was supposed to stop. It hasn’t. In reality, the Act has trapped thousands of residents living in Leasehold apartments with multiple fire safety defects. They are prisoners in their own homes.
Read Barry’s full op-ed in ByLine Times here.
Today, on Monday the 5th of February, Barry launched his documentary entitled LEASEHOLD.
From ground rent and service charges to mould and combustible cladding, Barry’s documentary tells the victims’ stories.
The Documentary can be watched below or on leaseholddoc.com