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RBKC put ‘narrow commercial goals’ before community in pre-Grenfell property deals, leader says

The leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) has apologised for putting “the narrow goal of generating commercial income” above serving the community in relation to a string of property deals in the years leading up to the Grenfell Tower fire.

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Grenfell Tower seen from the Lancaster West Estate (picture: Jon Enoch)
Grenfell Tower seen from the Lancaster West Estate (picture: Jon Enoch)
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The leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has apologised for putting “the narrow goal of generating commercial income” above serving the community in relation to a string of property deals in the years leading up to Grenfell #UKhousing

The council has published an independent review of deals that saw public assets in the deprived north of the borough sold or leased to private schools.

The deals – which affected a library, an adult education college and a community centre incorporating a Citizen’s Advice branch – caused consternation in the community at the time, with the now well known ‘Grenfell Action Group’ blog criticising the council’s actions.


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Ahead of the appearance of a number of its witnesses at the Grenfell Tower Inquiry in the coming months, RBKC commissioned analysts Kroll to produce a detailed report on the transactions.

They were:

  • North Kensington Library: A decision was made in June 2015 to build a new library to replace this historic building, which had been part of the North Kensington community since 1891. Ahead of this, in November 2015, an agreement was struck to lease the existing building to Notting Hill Preparatory School – an exclusive private school that charges fees in excess of £21,000 a year. This deal eventually did not go ahead.
  • Westway Information Centre: This building housed council support staff and a Citizen’s Advice branch, and had traditionally been available for use by the North Kensington community. It was leased to Notting Hill Preparatory School in 2015. The advice bureau was moved to a different premises and the school sub-let part of the property to sandwich chain Pret a Manger.
  • The Kensington Centre: This is one of the sites owned by Kensington and Chelsea College, an adult and further education provider in the area. The college sold the premises to the council for £28.6m in 2016, with the intention to use it for housing residents decanted from demolished estates, as well as providing an education centre on the site.
  • Isaac Newton Professional Development Centre: Historically a community school, this site had become a centre for teacher training. It was leased to Alpha Plus, the provider of various independent schools, including those attended by Prince William and Prince Harry.

While the Kroll report did not find any wrongdoing by the council staff involved in the deals, leader Elizabeth Campbell issued an apology to the community.

“It is clear to me that before 2017, the council did not find the right balance between financial benefits and social benefits,” she said. “Too often the council put the narrow goal of generating commercial income above the broader aim of delivering benefits to our wider community.

“The council’s policy wasn’t without reason. Good services need funding, and additional income can help to meet the tough financial challenges which we and many others in local government face.

“However, those financial considerations should never automatically come first. We fell below the bar on consultation, transparency, scrutiny and policy. We cannot say hand on heart that residents were involved every step of the way, or that the council put their interests first and foremost, and for that we apologise.”

An investigation by the Bureau for Investigative Journalism in 2019 found that the council made £129m from property deals in the years leading up to the Grenfell tragedy and had £37m of this in the bank when funding decisions were taken relating to the refurbishment.

The inquiry has already heard evidence that budget restraints were a major factor in driving the refurbishment team to switch from non-combustible zinc panels to the highly combustible but cheaper aluminium composite material.

Witnesses from RBKC will give evidence in module three of the second phase of the inquiry, which begins in April.

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