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Council buys 11 homes on Grenfell estate from housing association for £4m
Kensington and Chelsea Council has bought out a housing association from the estate where Grenfell Tower is located, purchasing its 11 properties for £4m.
The council approved the purchases of properties on the Lancaster West Estate from Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) at a council meeting last night. The association had been using the homes to provide temporary accommodation on behalf of the council.
Three will be converted to permanent social homes for the residents who were occupying them as temporary accommodation. The remaining eight will be retained for temporary accommodation.
The properties will be given a £700,000 refurbishment by the council, which has written to NHG calling on it to invest the £4m into other properties it owns in the area.
Kim Taylor-Smith, deputy leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said: “As a council we have made commitments towards achieving the highest quality of standards in our temporary accommodation and housing stock.
“Ensuring that these 11 properties are part of the estate-wide refurbishment programme and converting three into permanent tenancies shows our commitment to making every improvement we can to the homes on our estates, and to supporting the families that live in them.
“It is important to us that our residents live in good-quality housing regardless of who their landlord is.”
The 11 properties comprise four two-bedroom homes, six three-bedroom homes, and one four-bedroom home.
An NHG spokesperson said: “We were happy to support the council in bringing their housing management under one organisation, which was supported by residents of Lancaster West.
“Kensington and Chelsea remains one of our heartland areas and we continue to provide more than 300 temporary homes in the borough as well as thousands more for rent. We are committed to working with the council and residents to ensure we provide the best possible services.”
NHG is the largest housing association in Kensington and Chelsea, with 4,000 homes in the borough. It owned three homes within the tower itself, which were also being used for temporary accommodation. Two of these households died in the fire and the third lost a family member.
