Kent Law School housing law specialists Professor Helen Carr and Dr Ed Kirton-Darling have contributed their expert knowledge to a unique new website, launched today, that helps tower block tenants in England and Wales take action on housing problems.
FixMyBlock.org is is the first self-help service to provide information purely for tower block residents. It gives straightforward advice on how to get common problems fixed, from disrepair to fire safety issues. It’s also designed to help residents understand their legal rights, in clear and simple language.
It’s been created as a result of a project led by the information and resource group Tower Blocks UK and the charity mySociety. It was conceived as a response to the Grenfell Tower fire when it became clear that fire safety in tower blocks is a life or death matter.
The site’s designer, Zarino Zappia from mySociety said input provided by Professor Carr and Dr Kirton-Darling has been “invaluable”: ‘They’ve been involved right from the start, helping us understand the challenges faced by tower block tenants, and the various legislative tools at tenants’ disposal. Their experience and insight has helped shape much of the content on FixMyBlock, and they’ve also provided specific fact checking and advice for many of our pages on housing issues and routes of redress. We are now confident that the information we’re giving people is legally and factually correct.’
FixMyBlock provides letters that can be copied to contact landlords or the authorities along with advice on taking things to the next level, whether by collective action, campaigning or getting the media involved. It’s available in twenty locally spoken languages and plans are underway to extend its scope to cover Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as other types of tenure. The project is funded by a grant from the Legal Education Foundation.
Last summer, Professor Carr and Dr Kirton-Darling, developed a Fire Safety Checklist that has been helping hundreds of tower block residents check the fire safety of their homes. The Checklist was formally launched at an event attended by politicians, policymakers and leading fire safety professionals. Dr Kirton-Darling wrote about the importance of giving tenants power to prompt the state to act on their behalf in a post on Kent Law School’s Countercurrents blog.
Professor Carr teaches undergraduate students at Kent Law School in issues associated with Land and Property Law. She has research interests in how law regulates those who are marginal to housing and property.
Dr Kirton-Darling teaches in the fields of Family Law, Homelessness Law & Policy and Public Law at Kent. He has ongoing research projects which focus on health and safety in housing, homelessness, and investigations into contentious death.