A council in London is seeking to offload 14 properties it acquired to accommodate survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster due to their dilapidated condition, rendering them unfit for rental.
The Kensington and Chelsea Council acknowledged that it took certain risks when purchasing these properties “to expedite the process,” as indicated in a council report.
Following the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower in June 2017, which claimed the lives of 72 individuals and left over 70 injured, the council was tasked with finding housing for hundreds of displaced residents. Ultimately, they purchased a total of 290 properties.
The survivors’ group Grenfell Next of Kin criticized this revelation as indicative of “significant failures in the response to a catastrophe.”
A spokesperson for the council informed the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Acquiring 290 homes in 2017 was an unprecedented endeavor, and we recognized some risks would be necessary to expedite transactions.”
The council noted that it quickly became clear that certain properties were inadequate and challenging to bring up to the required high safety standards for social housing.
They stated that the purchases would not have occurred had they possessed more comprehensive information or if the “urgency of the situation” had been different.
“This included conducting only limited inspections and buying privately owned properties that we believed could be adapted for social housing,” they explained.
“It is unavoidable that quality will vary when sourcing this volume of properties quickly, particularly as many had previously been privately owned.”
The council aims to sell these 14 homes because their subpar condition precludes them from being made compliant with safety standards, prompting scrutiny regarding the council’s procedures and potential waste of taxpayer funds.
Emma O’Connor, who escaped with her partner via a lift from the 20th floor, accused the council of repeating past errors without learning from them.
She remarked, “They don’t conduct thorough investigations before making decisions. Urgency is a major warning sign. Fire safety cannot be hurried.”
“People’s lives are more important than financial matters. If it takes longer to find an appropriate property, so be it. Everyone has a right to live in a safe environment.”
Grenfell Next of Kin expressed that this acknowledgment was merely “the tip of the iceberg.”
They asserted, “The decision by the Conservative government, immediately following the fire, to allow the same negligent Conservative council to manage recovery with unlimited funds and no oversight was a severe mistake, detrimental to the victims and irresponsible.”
The Kensington and Chelsea Council stated that residents were relocated as soon as problems with the purchased properties came to light.
Some of these properties were left unoccupied due to safety concerns, including irregular layouts and issues with fire escapes.
The council affirmed that it would reinvest any proceeds from these sales back into social housing within the borough.
In February, the government announced plans to gradually dismantle the 24-story Grenfell Tower.
A spokesperson indicated that this process would take roughly two years and would be carried out “sensitively,” with no alterations to the structure before the eighth anniversary of the tragedy in June.
