'It's a s***show': How Greater Manchester residents' lives have been turned upside down after Grenfell

It was a tragedy that took the lives of 72 people in a London tower block - but it turned lives upside down in Greater Manchester too.

Seven years after the Grenfell Tower fire, survivors of the inferno and families of the victims finally have some answers over who was to blame for the deadly blaze. The final report of the public inquiry into the tragedy concluded that there were 'many opportunities' to identify the risks posed by 'combustible cladding panels and insulation', particularly in high-rise buildings - but the state failed to act.

Within days of the fatal fire in 2017, dozens of apartment blocks in Greater Manchester were found to have unsafe cladding similar to that which caused the west London blaze. Cladding was removed from many high-rise buildings - but many more were left in limbo.

READ MORE: The Grenfell Tower fire tragedy: What happened in the 'path to disaster'

Outside of the capital, Manchester and Salford are among the most affected by the cladding crisis which has trapped leaseholders in unsafe flats for years, unable to sell their properties and living in fear of their building burning down. In 2022, the last government opened a £5bn fund to address fire risks related to cladding on high-rise blocks – but many fire safety issues remain unresolved.

Much of the dangerous cladding has now been removed but where it has not, new fire safety measures and evacuation polices have had to be put in place. This includes costly 'waking watches' which involves trained staff patrolling the site to raise the alarm if a fire starts.

Although aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding has been removed from all social housing over 18 metres in Manchester, by 2020, work was yet to start on some privately-owned