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Grenfell rehousing ‘painfully slow’, says government taskforce
The rehousing of Grenfell survivors “remains painfully slow”, the government’s Kensington-based taskforce has said.
In its third report, the Grenfell Recovery Taskforce criticised the pace of rehousing, saying it had expected the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) to have made more progress by now.
Local MP Emma Dent Coad told Inside Housing if there was no improvement by the next report in spring 2019, she would call for the council to be placed under special measures.
The taskforce’s report said: “We recognise that the local government elections in May 2018 presented a hiatus in new decision-making and that RBKC would want to show sensitivity in their communications around the time of the one-year anniversary.
“Nevertheless, both periods were opportunities for officers to progress recovery work that had already been agreed and develop plans for immediate agreement by the new council: this was not particularly evident at the time.”
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In November, housing secretary James Brokenshire said that of 203 households displaced by the fire, 54 have still not been rehoused permanently.
Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said: “We welcome the criticism, and positive comments, because it is important to us that we continue to review, continue to improve and that we deliver.
“Throughout 2018, we have been working hard – especially in the rehousing of survivors – to make the properties we bought into a place that families can call home, working with them to do so in very complex circumstances.”
The taskforce’s report attributed the slow pace mainly to “works to properties to meet resident preferences”. It added: “This level of personalisation in the allocation of social housing is unprecedented.”
Sources close to Grenfell survivors have disputed this characterisation, saying that many of the homes bought by the council required a great deal of work to make them inhabitable, such as the installation of safe fire doors.
Ms Dent Coad told Inside Housing: “The 23-page report contains mainly bad news for those leading the Grenfell Recovery Strategy, and the lack of a robust plan to deliver the housing which is needed – mainly family homes – is a particular concern. More immediately, [the report says] the failure to house those made homeless within 18 months is ‘unacceptable’. Training and external communications are also criticised.
“All in all this is a damning report from the taskforce, which will prompt new calls for the council to be put into special measures. A fourth report will appear in spring 2019, and I for one will renew my calls for commissioners if there has been no discernible progress.”
Residents who lived near Grenfell and were evacuated after the fire, which gutted the entire tower and killed 72 people, have been a particular concern of campaigners.
In September, RBKC and Ms Dent Coad had a dispute over the council’s policy on rehousing these people, with Ms Dent Coad calling it “inhumane”.
Earlier this month, shadow housing secretary John Healey said it was “a matter of deep shame” that survivors had not been rehoused 18 months after the fire.
He demanded that the government set deadlines for the rehousing of people displaced by the fire and for the remediation of private blocks found to have Grenfell-style cladding.
