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Javid: number of Grenfell households still living in hotels ‘totally unacceptable’
The housing secretary has said the number of Grenfell Tower residents that are still living in hotels is “totally unacceptable”.
Delivering an update in parliament on the progress made by Kensington and Chelsea Council to support and rehouse households since the fire last June, Sajid Javid said there are still 82 households in emergency accommodation, and 25 of these are families with children.
He added: “The suffering that these families have already endured is unimaginable. Living for this long in hotels can only make the process of grieving and recovery even harder. It’s unlikely that all households will be permanently rehoused by the one-year anniversary of the fire – this is clearly not good enough.”
There are just 62 households out of 208 which have moved into permanent accommodation. Mr Javid said progress in rehousing households has been “far too slow”.
The housing secretary announced the Grenfell Recovery Taskforce had published its second report today on the council’s efforts to support residents since the fire. The taskforce found that “only limited progress” had been made and a “gulf in trust” between the community and the council “remains a major impediment to progress”.
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The taskforce said the council had demonstrated a “clear commitment to recovery” and many people within the council are “working commendably hard” with the council allocating “significant resources”.
However, there are still many areas of the council’s work “where we feel that more could be done and faster by the council, or they have not acted on our advice as we might have wished”, the report added.
The taskforce said that overall it has continued to see a “lack of consistency in the quality of service to the bereaved, survivors and wider community”.
It has “not seen enough evidence yet” that the council’s “commitment, strategies, plans and resources are translating into improved outputs or outcomes for enough bereaved, survivors and the wider community”. The council’s delivery on the ground for residents “remains patchy”, the report added.
There are still 22 households who have not accepted any offer of temporary accommodation.
The taskforce said the council and government have made “substantial resources” available to support the recovery effort and it had not heard complaints about a lack of resources but about a “slow response and poorly directed resourcing”.
The council has set up a Grenfell Recovery Scrutiny Committee and while the taskforce said this was a “genuine attempt” by the council to improve transparency, the meetings of the committee “have not been successful”. A recent workshop held to come up with ideas on how the committee might work better “ended in disarray”, the taskforce noted.
He added: “It was always going to be a challenge to respond to an unprecedented tragedy on this scale and to secure new accommodation in one of the country’s most expensive locations. But progress has not been made as quickly as it should have done.
Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said: “Firstly, what is clear from this report is that our pace, especially in rehousing families, is not quick enough. So we will be addressing that issue first and foremost.
“Secondly, I can see a lot of positives. The taskforce has rightly said that we have demonstrated a clear commitment to recovery, that our officers are working extremely hard, and the taskforce has outlined that the council has allocated significant resources to help survivors, victims and the bereaved."
“We have made huge progress. The secretary of state outlined that we have embarked on a complex and difficult housing programme, yet we have acquired 307 homes for 210 families. We now continue to work hard to make sure that families don’t just have a house, they have a home.
“The taskforce is right to point out clear areas for improvement. We accept that more can be done, and more we will do. We have to make sure that the resources and finances we have allocated make a difference to the individuals and families we want to help.
“We will look at all the recommendations in detail and response to government and the taskforce, and we thank them for their time and their guidance.”
