Why TB are you assuming all those who lived in these flats are spongers? Many of those have jobs, all be it not well paid ones.
Just by listening to them. They clearly think everybody owes them. I have been in so many homes of people with this mentality, in a former life, I can predict what they are going to say. The storming of the council offices afterwards clearly sums it up.
I have known grown up knowing people who live in "social housing" and 99% have jobs. I live in a flat within what is considered "social housing", although many flats are privately leased. I worked all my life until retirement, and now enjoy a healthy company pension reflecting my efforts. Many in my block either works, or like me are retired. If I lost my flat because the whole block was destroyed, would you call me a "sponger" who is not entitled to help, Remember, all of us are just one step away from losing everything and ending up on the street. 
Its not social housing - although anyone who has spent time in Milton Keynes (probably the first place to large scale implement the experiment of putting such housing in the more affluent areas in the hope it will lift the poorer families (obviously, the opposite happens, as even an idiot could have predicted)) - its those people who believe they take and not pay back.
LZ, if you lost your flat, I would hope your insurance would immediately find you an alternative, temporary solution within a day or 2 (sometimes these things are impossible the same day). Certainly mine were discussing that option until the fire service declared my house structurally unaffected several hours later. In the meantime, local friends had already offered temporary solutions, as had family a little further afield. Where are these people's friends and family? And don't say "in the same block", as that would imply it was very inbred, with little society integration. But then, I've always said, scum breeds scum (granted scum is too harsh here, but that's the saying).
Maybe I could have saved a bit, probably £10-12 per month, by not having insurance. But I'm bloody glad I did. That's less than 40 fags a month, costwise. Whats more important?
Would you have backed me up if I'd rioted the local council offices because they didn't do anything to help me? I'd hope not, because its a bloody retarded thing to do... ...yet the expected action for these who think life owes them
