When Sophie Bichener from Hitchin purchased her Stevenage flat for £230,000 back in 2017, she was unaware of the crippling costs that would come to haunt her.

Marketing professional and school governor Sophie, 30, moved into her flat a short time before the fatal fire at Grenfell Tower that saw official numbers state that 72 people lost their lives in the tragic blaze.

Like many thousands up and down the country including North Herts, Sophie bought her Stevenage flat under the assumption that it was safe because it complied with building regulations.

However, like so many others, the flat mandarins have labelled the residence to be unsafe in the wake of the Grenfell fire - leaving many with crippling bills.

As the fifth anniversary of the tragic Grenfell fire looms, read Sophie's powerful piece on the impact of the sky-high bills she has faced.

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I am an impacted leaseholder in a high-rise tower block in Hertfordshire. I have a bill of more than £208,000 for fire safety works and a diagnosis of anxiety and depression thanks to the Building Safety Crisis. 

As we approach the fifth anniversary of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire, I would like to highlight the ongoing plight of leaseholders. The Government's rhetoric is once again not matching up to the lived experiences of leaseholders.

It is true that some buildings have now started to work on remediation but so many others are being left in the dark. More than 100 buildings over 18m in England "still have the same type of cladding used on Grenfell Tower, nearly five years after the fire" and there are likely to be many more under 18m - on top of this, the number of buildings without ACM cladding that still have other dangerous cladding or fire safety systems is much, much higher.

In my case, the Management Company and Freeholder are refusing to remove my £208,000 bill from my account and warn inflation may even make it higher. In the Government's eyes this is not 'moral' and in future will no longer be 'legal' - yet nothing is changing.

Questions

I want to ask the following questions:

Why, after five years, are we still living in unsafe homes with no concrete plan to make them any safer?

Why are leaseholders still paying extortionate rates for insurance and other interim measures?

Why are 'waking watches' still being implemented with little to no evidence they work? 

When will all buildings in the country be considered safe?

When will leaseholders be able to move on with their lives?

Why are so many leaseholders who have unsafe buildings or life changing sums in bills being left in the dark with no response from LUHC?

Why has there been next to no mental health support for leaseholders impacted, especially after we experienced suicides and the mental health report here.

My life is still on hold - I cannot move, sell or even plan to have a family - and there is no sign this will change in the near future.

The future I worked hard for and planned for myself has been taken away from me, as well as a big chunk of my life savings.