Senior British Labour Party officials have called for Kensington’s vacant luxury homes to be turned into temporary housing for victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.
The rise of empty high-end properties has become a sore point in cities like New York and London, places struggling to build enough affordable and middle-income housing.
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On Thursday, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said the government should "requisition" properties in Kensington and Chelsea left vacant by wealthy overseas owners to house survivors of Wednesday’s blaze.
"Kensington is a tale of two cities. The south part of Kensington is incredibly wealthy, it’s the wealthiest part of the whole country," British media quoted Mr. Corbyn saying on Thursday. "The ward where this fire took place is, I think, the poorest ward in the whole country and properties must be found—requisitioned if necessary—to make sure those residents do get rehoused locally.
"It can’t be acceptable that in London we have luxury buildings and luxury flats left empty as land banking for the future while the homeless and the poor look for somewhere to live," he said.
His call for requisition came as the death toll rose to 17 on Thursday, with dozens more still hospitalized, according to reports from the Associated Press. The day before, flames erupted at Grenfell, a public housing block, and spread rapidly up the sides of the building, leaving the structure a charred shell and hundreds of people homeless. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Fellow Labour Party members took to Twitter following Mr. Corbyn’s comments to support his call for requisition.
"Loads of empty flats (land banks) in Kensington," wrote Harriet Harman, Labour’s former deputy leader, on Twitter. "Right that govt (sic) should requisition to rehouse Grenfell survivors."
Labour MP David Lammy also chimed in that he, too, supported requisition.
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London is not the only city grappling with a disparity between insufficient public housing and a boom in luxury real estate.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio along with some New York State lawmakers have proposed a 2.5% mansion tax on homes sold in New York City for over $2 million—the proceeds of which would generate rent subsidies for low-income seniors.
Mr. Corbyn’s calls for requisition, like the mansion tax, met opposition from conservatives moments after it was suggested.