Grenfell Tower fire: Survivors 'sleeping rough in parks and cars', says Kensington MP

‘They don’t know where to go and they aren’t being looked after,’ says Labour’s Emma Dent Coad

Dent Coad claims the London borough is in ‘total chaos’ and people are ‘running around like headless chickens’ (AP)

Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire are sleeping rough in parks and cars, according to the newly elected Labour MP for Kensington.

Emma Dent Coad said the borough was in “total chaos” and suffering from “appalling” coordination nearly a week on from the blaze that is believed to have killed at least 79 people.

“People have been sleeping in cars and in parks because they don’t know where to go and they aren’t being looked after,” she told Sky News.

“The coordination is appalling. Somebody told me this morning they are still this morning running around like headless chickens – that was something somebody from the inside [said].”

She said many people were worried about accepting the Government’s payouts for fear it would impact on their benefit support.

Downing Street said residents who lost their homes would receive a down payment of at least £5,500 after outrage that residents were only being handed £10 a day.

“Some of them may just be worried their papers are going through or they haven’t had papers, whatever it may be. A lot of people are concerned about benefit – if they are getting lump sums of money if that’s going to affect their benefits; we’ve had that confirmed this morning that that’s not going to have any effect at all,” Ms Dent Coad said.

“How we get the word out about that is another matter altogether, because even I as their MP going round the streets have people pleading to me for help – I still don’t have the contacts that I need to point people in the right direction.”

Labour councillor Pat Mason told The Independent council staff were “broken” following the tragedy.

“We as individual councillors were running from one place to another telling the council, telling the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation that there were people here and there that needed help,” he said.

“The response has been utterly inadequate on every level, there was no means to disseminate the information to all the different places. There was nothing to do with information as we got it, apart from pass it on through word of mouth.”

The leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council claimed he received “overwhelming” backing to remain in the post in the face of widespread criticism of the council’s handling of the incident.

Nick Paget-Brown said that fellow councillors had shown their support in the wake of reports that he had offered to resign from the post.