Thousands of council tenants across the country will welcome a campaign launched by Jeremy Corbyn to convince the government to fit sprinklers in tower blocks.

Despite high-rises not being a feature of most of our city's skylines, there are around 4,000 tower blocks in the UK owned by councils and housing authorities.

A freedom of information request by the BBC in September uncovered that sprinklers were found in just 2% of these blocks.

Sprinklers are very important.

A study of 2,294 fires gathered by National Fire Sprinkler Network and the National Fire Chiefs Council found that 90% of fires were either extinguished or controlled by the sprinklers, making it much safer for residents and much easier for firefighters to deal with blazes on higher floors.

Months before the Grenfell Tower fire, on November 20 2016, the Grenfell Action Group posted an article with a now eerily prophetic headline "KCTMO - Playing with fire".

The article begins with the words "Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO".

Residents of the 24-storey tower block had been campaigning for years for improved fire safety standards on the Lancaster West estate and their struggle was mirrored in tower blocks across the country.

In 2007, the Labour government made it a legal requirement to have sprinklers fitted in all new build tower blocks over 30 meters tall but stopped short of demanding retro-fitting them into existing blocks.

Just two years later in Southwark, the Lakanal House fire in 2009 killed six innocent residents and the coroner advised the government to put pressure on local authorities to retro-fit sprinklers.

Needless to say the advice was not heeded and eight years later Grenfell Tower and thousands more across the country remained without sprinklers.

After the fire, London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton, said “Sprinklers are the only fire safety system that detects a fire, suppresses a fire and raises the alarm.

"They save lives and protect property and they are especially important where there are vulnerable residents who would find it difficult to escape, like those with mobility problems.

“My priority is to save lives but I can also make an economic case for sprinklers. It costs around £1,500 - £2,500 to retrofit a flat, while the cost of refurbishing a one-bedroom flat after a fire is about £77,000.”

The current Labour regime, under passionate social housing proponent Jeremy Corbyn, launched its "make homes safe" campaign in Hammersmith last week, just a mile from the now covered up carcass of Grenfell Tower.

Just a mile from the destroyed homes of more than 350 people, including refugees and young children.

The £1 billion price tag for retrofitting sprinklers across the UK does appear extreme but in the aftermath of what west London witnessed this summer, is there such a thing as too expensive?

That question is for the voters to answer, and within a day of the campaign's launch, 50,000 people had already signed Mr Crobyn's letter asking Theresa May's government to set aside the necessary funds in the budget later this month.

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