Class apartheid

 If you’re a resident of Knightsbridge, near Harrods, you can expect to live to 94, while a man living near Grenfell is looking at an average lifespan of 72, a figure which the report identifies as having fallen by 6 years since 2010.

Across the Kensington and Chelsea borough child poverty stands at the London average of 27%, but in the poorest areas it can reach a staggering 58%.

One street in Knightsbridge has a 0% health deprivation rating, but in a block on a council estate two miles away it’s 65%.

On the World’s End estate, residents have an average income of £15,000 a year, while owners of nearby homes on the other side of the King’s Road pull in a tidy £100,000 a year.

Councils have said the government is failing to release funds to improve the fire safety of dozens of tower blocks following the Grenfell Tower disaster despite promising that a lack of financial resources should not stand in the way of essential works.

Ministers have said building owners are responsible for funding safety measures, but town hall leaders complain that they are “washing their hands of their responsibilities” and are being “dismissive”, four months after the blaze at the Kensington tower block.

 Despite the pledge made in July by Sajid Javid, that lack of financial resources would not prevent necessary works going ahead, claims for the cost retrofitting fire suppression systems and other safety improvements on vulnerable buildings are being pushed back.

It’s evident that, as usual, the wealthy class are full of fine words in front of the media, but revert to type when they’re asked to put money where their claims of morality are.  They’re blatantly applying cost-benefit analysis to the issue and have judged that the lives of the poor are worth less than the cost of a few sprinkler heads.

http://evolvepolitics.com/welcome-to-tory-britain-where-rich-people-live-22-years-longer-than-poor-people-in-grenfell-constituency/