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Morning Briefing: Cameron and May face calls to appear before Grenfell Inquiry
David Cameron and Theresa May are facing calls to appear before the Grenfell Inquiry to find out why they “failed to take meaningful actions” to prevent the fire
Labour councillors for the Conservative-controlled Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) are making the request as part of a two-pronged “action plan” to achieve justice for Grenfell survivors, The Independent reports.
In a letter to inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick, Pat Mason, Labour leader at RBKC, said that ministers must answer “why they failed to take meaningful actions to reform their not-fit-for-purpose fire and building regulations after the Lakanal House fire”, which, he said, “might have prevented other similar fires, including Grenfell”.
Gavin Barwell, Ms May’s former chief of staff, also faced pressure after letters emerged showing he failed to act on multiple safety warnings in the build up to the tragedy.
Mr Mason told The Independent: “Sir Martin Moore-Bick needs to prove that he doesn’t believe ministers are above the law.”
Labour councillors are also pushing to hold the local authority to account for its response to the fire.
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Elsewhere, a big move is expected to be announced today with a prominent city financier joining fast-growing affordable housing provider Heylo as chief executive.
Andrew Geczy, who was previously boss of private equity giant Terra Firma, will join Heylo to accelerate its growth plans, Sky News reports.
Heylo owns Home Reach, which has so far built 4,000 shared ownership homes nationwide.
Meanwhile, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) latest industry survey suggests that Brexit uncertainty will dampen house prices and the volume of property sales over the next three months.
“It is hard to get away from the shadow being cast over the housing market by the seemingly never-ending Brexit saga,” said Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at RICS, to Reuters.
In local news, a council’s £15m loan to regenerate a housing estate 24 years ago is still owed and likely to cost more than £50m to repay, the BBC reports.
Carlisle City Council took out the interest-only loan, which is due to be fully repaid next year, to revamp the Raffles Estate.
At the time, the council was controlled by Labour but is now run by the Conservatives.
Deputy leader Gareth Ellis branded it a “toxic legacy of debt”.
Labour said it had been “a good deal” at the time.
At the other end of the country, a council plans to buy back flats to allow the renovation of four tower blocks after leaseholders complained about the cost of the works.
The plan, by Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council, comes after 33 homeowners in Poole were asked to each pay up to £56,000 towards the £20m scheme, the BBC reports.
However, opposition councillors have hit out, calling the re-purchase scheme “plain wrong”.
Finally, there’s been an interesting development in California, which has agreed to a statewide cap on rent increases to tackle its affordable housing crisis.
A bill, passed by lawmakers yesterday, limits annual rent rises to 5% after inflation and takes effect from March of this year, Reuters reports.
It also imposes restriction on evictions without cause, similar to Section 21, which Ms May’s government agreed to ban.
On social media
A Californian Democrat assembly member welcomes the move:
Today we finally made it clear that Californians who rent are no less deserving of having a stable roof over their head #AB1482 https://t.co/kXvyTVhcq6
