[JTM45]

You're right TS.

Like you said, they've got money to spend on the external fascia (which is being pointed too as the reason for the fire spreading so alarmingly quickly) but, even though they'd been made aware of it, they didn't spend this money on making the block better equipped for fast evacuation in this kind of an event. As long as it looks OK from a distance!
There's stories about lifts not working, there only being a single emergency exit which was frequently blocked with rubbish and there wasn't adequate or timely maintainance done onanything there. It must have been bad for the residents to have to start an action group (see LT's post a couple above this one) to try and adress their safety concerns. And all they did was put some fire safety info (pretty bad info as it turned out!) cards on the walls there.