Use local long term empty homes for #GrenfellFire survivors. #Justice4Grenfell

Dozens of survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire have been left homeless. Whilst the Government has promised they will be rehomed locally, people on the ground are reporting they are being threatened with being sent to cities outside of London. These people have lost everything. Many of them may have jobs in London. Their children, if they survived, will go to school in the area. These people will need their friends and community around them - not to be torn away from all their support networks. After such a trauma they MUST be rehomed locally to avoid further disruption to their lives.

In Kensington & Chelsea where the fire happened, there are hundreds of properties which have been bought by overseas investors - not to provide homes - but simply so they can watch the value of their properties increase and make money from it. Over 1,000 potential homes have been empty for more than six months in this borough alone. When people are homeless, this is a travesty.

It would be entirely reasonable for central government to authorise the requisitioning of any residential properties in Kensington & Chelsea which have been left empty for more than six months, and to allocate these as housing for Grenfell survivors. 

This is not a radical suggestion. Properties are regularly forcibly purchased by councils for things like roads, railways, airports, shopping centres, by Compulsory Purchase Orders - "for the public good". Is there any clearer case for public good than housing people in crisis, made homeless through apparent negligence?

Sign now if you agree that empty properties should be used as homes for Grenfell survivors.

Jeremy Corbyn and senior Labour MPs have called for homes left vacant in Kensington and Chelsea by overseas investors to be requisitioned in order to rehouse those left homeless due to the Grenfell Tower fire.