Shameful treatment of vulnerable families in heatwave | Letters

Fernando Quintana Marrero responds to a report about children housed in a building in London becoming sick after families were denied air conditioning

How did London get here (Families in London temporary housing told they cannot use in-built air conditioning, 27 July)? Your report says homeless families, including young children, were placed in a glass tower during a heatwave and told they could not use the building’s air conditioning because it had “not been offered as an amenity”. If that doesn’t make every Londoner stop in disbelief, we’ve become dangerously desensitised. This is no longer a housing crisis, it is a crisis of basic human dignity.

London proudly markets itself as one of the world’s greatest cities: a global financial capital overflowing with luxury developments, billion-pound property portfolios and record-breaking real estate values. Yet, in the shadow of that wealth, children are being expected to endure dangerously hot flats where the very system designed to make the building habitable is effectively treated as a luxury.