Grenfell Tower

• AT a moment’s notice I was charged in 1967 with resettling 600 stateless refugees in the hills of India. They were delivered in military trucks and dying at the rate of six a week.

While the Grenfell Tower incident is somewhat different, the task of allocating aid fairly is a similar challenge.

Once the home of an abundance of capable charities, Britain has apparently lost the knack of knowing what to do next.

A century ago Olympic events were hosted on Hampstead Heath. Could not the City set aside its dam building preoccupation and create a caravan park there, with a life of three years, after which the temporary planning consent would expire?

Meanwhile we might revisit the wartime era when almost unlimited resourcefulness existed and consider the creation of a national emergency agency.

PETER CUMING
Talacre Road, NW5