Amanda Walker waged war on dangerous cladding. Then she was found dead
walker familyAmanda Walker feels trapped in an apartment that she can’t sell because of the flammable exterior.
She began campaigning when she discovered there were no government plans to cover the cost of removing hazardous materials from her newly built flat in south London.
She spent four years trying to get justice for herself and the millions of people embroiled in the Grenfell Tower fire scandal.
Then, at age 51, her mother and sister found her dead in her one-bedroom apartment. A recent inquest recorded a verdict of accidental death.
“She would often call me late at night when she just couldn’t take it anymore,” her mother, Glenda, recalled.
“I wish she would call me now.”
Half a year ago, in July 2023, Amanda addressed her peers in the House of Lords to investigate the impact of cladding issues on apartment owners.
“It’s devastating. It’s just a quagmire. It’s just chaos,” she told them. “It’s so unfair. I didn’t do anything wrong and it has ruined my life.”
A video of Amanda addressing the House of Lords, the first time she has spoken since the inquiry’s ruling, is now treasured by her mother.
Glenda believes Amanda, an office manager at a hedge fund in the City of London, started drinking to cope with anxiety about being unable to afford the cost of repairing the facade, which cost tens of thousands.
“I’m not ashamed of it because it was her way of coping. She used the phrase ‘seeking oblivion.'”
Amanda wrote countless letters to MPs, local authorities and other responsible bodies but “always got a statutory reply”, her mother continued.
“There are still over a million people in this situation and (MPs and civil servants) will write these cliche letters saying ‘oh we’re doing this, we’re doing this’.”
Not only does she think these are unhelpful, but she proves that no one really understands the scale of the problem and how seriously it affects people.
The government did eventually launch a scheme – the Building Safety Fund – to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding like the one outside Amanda’s apartment.
She hopes changes contained in a separate landmark law called the Building Safety Act, enacted after the Grenfell tragedy, will help her correct internal fire safety deficiencies, such as insufficient fire protection between apartments.
But they didn’t. There are some significant exceptions for those who qualify.
Because some of the other apartment owners in her development had purchased part of the building’s freehold, she became a so-called “ineligible” tenant – meaning she still faced a huge uncapped bill to pay for repairs.
Several proposed amendments to the Building Safety Act that would have protected people in Amanda’s position were defeated in the last parliament.
What Amanda always feared was the threat of having to pay money she couldn’t pay. She described it as “the sword of Damocles hanging over my head for three years.” For a brief moment, we held out hope. “Then they voted against us on everything,” she told peers.
walker familyAmanda’s drinking increased and her family sought medical help. She agreed to be hospitalized. GPs and psychiatrists were clear in their reports: Amanda’s alcoholism, stress and anxiety were down to the impact of the cladding crisis on her mental state. She was prescribed antidepressants.
She continued to campaign with her mother, but things began to go downhill.
Glenda believed that the antidepressants she was taking were not doing her any good. “I think she was overmedicated and her head was all over the place. She wasn’t depressed, she kept saying: ‘I’m not depressed, I’m angry.'”
Amanda’s partner broke up with her as baggage exercise took over more and more of her life. Her mother and sister would visit her and try to offer support.
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One day in January this year, things came to a head.
Glenda became increasingly nervous about her daughter and knew she needed urgent medical attention.
She said she had written a “fairly confident” letter to the hospital where her daughter had been treated, warning that her condition was becoming serious.
On the rainy trip to London, she found herself “phoning and ringing” the hospital to try to get doctors to intervene again.
The next day, Amanda was found dead.
Asked if she had ever thought her daughter might commit suicide, Glenda said: “Manda talked about it. She talked about it.”
She said she understood her daughter’s mood that weekend.
“Yes, I see this all the time. I’m different from her in that she feels hopeless… She wants justice, but she thinks it’s horrible. I think she has completely lost faith in the government.”
The government said work is already underway on the Remediation Acceleration Scheme “to ensure those responsible for the cladding crisis pay their fair share”.
The company said it was “continuing to consider all options to ensure residents no longer have to deal with the nightmare of living in an unsafe building”.
Amanda’s apartment is now in the hands of her parents.
Its facade has now been replaced and they are trying to sell – but they have still been unable to do so due to structural fire issues within the property.
Unless the Building Safety Act is amended through new legislation, Amanda’s parents or any future purchasers will be responsible for paying to have these issues fixed.
Amanda’s mother hopes talking about her daughter’s death is not in vain and that her story can serve as a catalyst.
“You go through grief…and maybe now the anger comes in a little bit.
“For her sake, we’d love to think she made some small difference.”
