I grew up in a London council block – it was a wonderful place to call home | Basia Cummings

The community in my family's block was warm, thriving and diverse. But because residents are often poor, their concerns are frequently ignored

At the foot of this blackened and devastating emblem of austerity, privatisation, and prejudice it was local residents, not the council, who assembled to support the survivors burned out of their homes. Their strength of community, their empathy and their tireless commitment to step in when the state did not, will come as no surprise to anyone who has lived in one of the UK's many high-rises, council blocks, or so-called "sink estates". Because while many denigrate them as "antisocial, high-maintenance, disempowering, unnecessary, mostly ugly", the reality inside is very different.

At a time when many of the millions of people in the UK who live in high-rises and blocks will be looking around their homes with a new sense of fear, it has never been so necessary to celebrate them, and the communities that live within them.

Related: MPs demand help for terrified high-rise residents after London fire

People were killed in a horrific fire that could have been prevented had their communities been taken seriously