It said Rydon would appoint other consultants (to include fire, DDA [Disability Discrimination Act], acoustic, etc, after the main subcontractors are on board. To replace the windows, they would have had to put up scaffolding, and they didnt want to spend the money., In nearby Hazelwood Tower, also run by KCTMO, Jean Dumas, an architect, works in a ground floor office of Trellik Design Studio. /Type /Catalog /Parent 2 0 R On 14 June 2017 a large fire engulfed Grenfell Tower, a 24-floor, 120-flat block managed by KCTMO. /F10 10 0 R It emerged on Friday that 149 tower blocks in 45 local authority areas have failed tests on the flammability of their cladding. Edward Daffarn was accused of being "disruptive" and "aggressive" at meetings held by KCTMO during consultation with residents about the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower. He has called an emergency meeting next week for residents who have other concerns about fire that need to be addressed. >> There are also no sprinklers in the building, something residents also complained about in Grenfell. >> Although Grenfell Tower is owned by the Borough Council of Kensington and Chelsea, the management of the tower block is subcontracted out to the TMO. Police said they were considering manslaughter charges in relation to the fire as they revealed that the cladding tiles at the building had failed safety tests. /F2 17 0 R Seventy-two people died in the Grenfell fire on 14 June 2017. List of Grenfell's Following the fire, The Grenfell Tower Inquiry was established to establish the cause and origin of the fire and in a second phase to examine the buildings refurbishment and external cladding, examining key issues related to the responsibility for maintaining the safety of the building and the residents. 5 0 obj /F8 11 0 R Mr Chapman said he feared the fire safety consultant appointed by KCTMO would be tasked with proving residents wrong rather than conducting a proper assessment. /MediaBox [0.0 0.0 595.2 857.28] Your email address will not be published. The doors were finally opened when the meeting was under way, although those bereaved by the disaster and residents were not allowed in. Often Buy-To-Let landlords owning former council flats now let to homeless families, paid for by the borough through housing benefit, at vast public expense. Grenfell Like I am a member of an NHS Trust but that gives me (or even a hundred of me) no significant power. Considered one of the worst man-made disasters in post-World War II Britain, the Grenfell Tower fire of June 14th, 2017 is a breach of the right to life, an assault on human dignity and a manifestation of stark inequality in the UK. Image obtained from https://www.grenfellunited.org/. In most cases, effective governance and management require a governance framework as a tool for providing structure for delivering appropriate decision making and oversight. Home News. (HRA 1998, s 6) It also requires domestic courts to interpret legislation so far as possible in a manner that is compliant with the ECHR, and empowers courts to award damages where Convention rights have been violated. 3 0 obj Families who live in nearby Adair Tower in north Kensington, also operated by Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation (KCTMO), have instructions to stay in their homes in the event of a fire. Edward Daffarn described Grenfell Tower's management as a "mini-mafia", Seventy-two people died in the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017. Read about our approach to external linking. To be clear, if we cannot get out people will die or at best suffer serious injury.. Available at:https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/housing-after-grenfell/blog/2019/11/grenfell-tower-fire-breach-right-life (Accessed [date]). /F3 18 0 R Your life is too precious to stay put. KCTMO is a tenant controlled TMO and the great majority of its board are resident members.. The fact that all the tenants can become members amounts to little as all they can do is elect some of the Board. << Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation opening statement. /Kids [3 0 R 4 0 R 5 0 R 6 0 R 7 0 R] % A key problem in the causation of Grenfell was LACK OF TENANT INVOLVEMENT AND OVERSIGHT. /F6 21 0 R Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, Grenfell residents looked down on by housing chiefs, inquiry hears, Grenfell manager binned notes on refurbishment after fire, Grenfell contractor misrepresented cladding price to pocket savings, Firms in Grenfell Tower inquiry given immunity from prosecution, Grenfell report must criticise authorities, say survivors and bereaved, List of Grenfell's vulnerable tenants 'was 15 years out of date', Grenfell Tower manager confronted over 'cheap' refurbishment. The aluminium cladding is suspected of having helped spread the fire that claimed at least 80 lives. Contact. Residents of other blocks run by Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation raise concerns about the safety of their buildings. /F2 17 0 R They should have spent some of that money., Jose del Faria, 53, lives on the 11th floor of Adair Tower. Giving evidence at the inquiry into the disaster, Mr Daffarn said he had "spent a long, long time thinking how to describe this organisation" but he "wouldn't change a single word of it. << It is important to remember that corporate responsibility encompasses the duties and responsibilities of corporations, but such duties are the responsibility of a variety of social actors and not merely focussed on codes and reporting procedures. Mr Kinnier said that a full review of the property policy arrangements was recommended in the 2013 document. Staff managing social housing for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea adopted an us vs them mentality towards residents of the Grenfell Tower in the months before the fire that killed 72 people, an inquiry has heard. It is true to say that some lessons have been learnt about potential risks of inappropriate cladding and evacuation advice but there is no evidence that the lessons of the governance failure that led to the choice of poor redevelopment, inappropriate safety standards and the procurement of unsafe cladding have been learnt. I stopped paying my rent in protest because my windows were falling off. /F5 20 0 R He was a bitter critic of the organisation in the years before the refurbishment of the building and during the work. /MediaBox [0.0 0.0 595.2 857.28] Grenfell Towers landlords appeared to have a reactive approach to maintenance dating back to a report in 2013, a public inquiry has heard. What is the actual purpose of this TMOs? [17] In September 2017 Kensington and Chelsea councillors voted unanimously to end the contract with KCTMO, stating that the firm "no longer has the trust of residents in the borough". (There was) nothing addressing the individual parts of it, it was just very generic.. [email protected] uiry.org.uk 0800 121 4282 chief executive of KCTMO, Robert Black, stood down on Friday, leaders of Kensington and Chelsea council have been accused of shameful behaviour, An absolute fiasco: angry scenes as council ends Grenfell Tower meeting, leader Nick Paget-Brown also quit on Friday, the Guardian obtained a high court order preventing the council from banning journalists. Grenfell Tower inquiry: Block management 'was a mini /F7 9 0 R /CropBox [0.0 0.0 595.2 857.28] << Through austerity cuts, since 2015 financial support for tenant training has gone, and there has been little interest in TMOs. Following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, the council terminated its contract with KCTMO. Carol Stream Property Management - grid7properties.com /F12 15 0 R A fire at the Grenfell Tower block in west London in June 2017 claimed 72 lives. Rock Feilding-Mellen is chairman of Kensington and Chelseas housing committee. >> We use cookies on this site to understand how you use our content, and to give you the best browsing experience. /F7 9 0 R Other savings listed include the removal of all external landscaping works, saving 428,000, and changing window surrounds from birchwood to MDF or softwood in a further 117,000 cut. Grenfell Tower, the fire, and its aftermath, Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council, "The Housing (Right to Manage) Regulations 1994", "Tenant management organisations the best-kept secret in housing", "Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation The Board", "Financial statements for year end 31st March 2013", "Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation Anti Social Behaviour Form", "London fire: Six killed as Grenfell Tower engulfed", "London high-rise fire leaves multiple people dead, dozens injured and others missing", "Fire safety concerns raised by Grenfell Tower residents in 2012", "People died thinking 'they didn't listen', says ex-Grenfell residents' group chair", "Private company responsible for Grenfell Tower maintenance asks public to donate money to help fire victims", "Grenfell management company stripped of responsibility for estate", "Grenfell Tower firm has housing contract terminated", "Grenfell firm to pass responsibility for homes to council", Criticism of the response to the Grenfell Tower fire, Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kensington_and_Chelsea_TMO&oldid=1150172436, 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom, Tenant management organisations in England, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 April 2023, at 18:16. /F10 10 0 R Fire-resistant zinc cladding approved by residents of Grenfell Tower was replaced in the refurbishment contract with cheaper aluminium panels to save 293,368, according to documents seen by the Guardian. They negotiate a management agreement with their council landlord to take on limited, local responsibilities, paid for out of an allowance from their rents. More sensible was the arrangement we had in Ladywood, of an elected Ladywood Housing Liaison Board of twelve-or-so tenants (and ONLY tenants), handling just the few hundred properties in our locality. Grenfell On that occasion I went out on to my balcony, but there was thick smoke there. /Contents 8 0 R Article 2 therefore includes a positive substantive obligation on states to take appropriate steps to safeguard the lives of those within their jurisdiction. (2019). The council, whose leader Nick Paget-Brown also quit on Friday, wanted the meeting held behind closed doors but a group of media organisations including the Guardian obtained a high court order preventing the council from banning journalists at about 6pm on Thursday, half an hour before the meeting was scheduled to start. The number of at risk buildings has risen steadily since the government ordered a full review of high-rises around the country, and there is still a 100% failure rate in fire safety tests. Kensington and Chelsea TMO was the largest TMO in the UK [3] and unique in having been the only TMO that managed the entire housing stock for the local council. [4] Following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, the council terminated its contract with KCTMO. Since January 2018, the housing has been directly managed by the council. Another couple, who bought a flat on the ninth floor of Adair Tower, said they saw little in return for the 4,000 service fee they pay to the landlord each year. In a closing comment, Mr Daffarn said the building's management "didn't treat us with respect or humanity or empathy and if they had done, we wouldn't be here now". /Type /Pages The public inquiry into the June 2017 disaster is now looking at issues surrounding social housing management, including risk assessment and handling of tenants complaints. In 2008 Juliet Rawlings, chair of the TMO's Board from 2003, was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for her work with the organisation. [16], In August 2017, it was announced that KCTMO would no longer manage the Lancaster West Estate containing Grenfell Tower, which would come under direct council control. /Xi7 31 0 R To find out more about cookies and change your preferences, visit our, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_and_Chelsea_TMO, How Tenant Management Organisations have wrongly been associated with Grenfell, British Government @ LSE General Election 2015 Event Series, Write for the LSE British Politics and Policy blog, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. In addition, it provides a structured way to collaborate with stakeholders on specific issues with minimal risk of confusion and loss of productivity. Grenfell residents not listened to Shirley Phillips, 72, who lives on the second floor in a neighbouring block, said: I am worried, but is worrying going to help? She had read on Facebook that one of the tenants wants everyone to rally around and call for the cladding to be removed. /F4 19 0 R Grenfell United formed after the tragedy, a group formed of survivors and the bereaved, campaigning for justice and representation. Edward Daffarn and another resident repeatedly attacked the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) in a blog. How is someone on the top floor to know there is a fire on the bottom if there is no fire alarm?. [10] In 2016 the chair, Fay Edwards, was awarded the British Empire Medal for her services to the community in Kensington and Chelsea. /F11 12 0 R Tenants in the Lancaster West estate where Grenfell Tower is located and in other big estates in the Royal Borough wanted more say and better housing services. [18] In late December 2017 KCTMO announced that it would be handing control of all of its housing stock back to the council by 31 January 2018 as an "interim measure".[19]. You are quite right Robin a key problem (maybe the key problem) was a lack of tenant involvement. /Resources << They put in new doors after the fire last October, but you can see daylight around the edge. It did not look fireproof, they said. Edward Daffarn and another resident repeatedly attacked the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) in a blog. A plausible explanation for the careless attitude towards establishing effective oversight measures is that under the previous arrangements the Kensington and Chelsea Borough council was directly responsible for managing social housing. Anne Power is Professor of Social Policy and Head of LSE Housing and Communities. My point is this: it is a serious and dangerous error to draw the lesson that KCTMO was not really a TMO. The leaseholders association also repeatedly raised concerns about residents smoking in the stairwell and the fact that the exposed gas pipes were an easy target for vandalism. Both Kensington and Chelsea Council and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) have been told they may have committed manslughter. endobj She explains why the difference matters in light of the disaster at Grenfell. The Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, The Role of Corporate Governance Failure in the Grenfell Tower Fire. He said residents had tried to get KCTMO to engage with them on the noise from the upgrade works, poorly fitted windows and the placement of boilers. An effective governance programme includes effective risk management providing clarity in defining roles, delineating duties, preventing duplicated efforts, identifying potential blind-spots, and assisting these efforts by providing structure to policies and tools. Among the 200 TMOs nationally, that particular organisation is a total anomaly not community-based, not cooperatively run, not representative. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. /Font << The council and its tenant management organisation will give evidence in coming weeks. The TMO was set up on 1 April 1996,[1] under the UK Government's Housing (Right to Manage) Regulations 1994. The police were not transparent about the Grenfell death toll: why does it matter now? Such justice must encompass potential lawsuits under the Human Rights Act 1998, as well as criminal charges against those entities who manufactured the ACM cladding and were instrumental in the refurbishment of the tower. /F12 15 0 R His son, Michael, pointed out that they had been attached with weak glue like the type your credit card is attached to the banks letter [with] and some were already falling off. WebProvide full-time tenant management; Schedule and oversee property repair and maintenance; Manage collection of all rent and enforce penalties for late payments; The choices made at Grenfell suggest that residents were not the core priority of decision makers, for example, in opting for slightly cheaper but less fire-resistant cladding in the refurbishment. The Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation was established on 1 April 1996, when it assumed management of 9,760 properties from the council. /F6 21 0 R They told us to put wet clothes on the floor. As secretary of the Grenfell Tower Leaseholders Association (GTLA), he had raised concerns about bare gas pipes being run through the stairwell of the building the only fire escape during recent upgrade works. The husband and wife, who did not wish to be named, said they had been in their flat when fire broke out last October. Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 6 0 obj The ECHR must be interpreted in the light of its object and purpose. /F4 19 0 R The first step is to put in place a neighbourhood manager on Lancaster West, someone who can pull together the core housing services, now so desperately needed, with residents directly involved, to restore the confidence of a deeply shaken community. /Parent 2 0 R The Grenfell Tower formed one part of the Lancaster West Estate envisioned in the 1960s and completed in the 1970s (MacLeod, 2018, p.467). [14] At a meeting in January 2016, the residents association presented the findings of a survey which found that 68% of residents had felt harassed or intimidated by the KCTMO or its contractors, and that 90% were dissatisfied with the manner in which improvement works had been carried out. KCTMO declined to comment on the material swap. Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management The government has established a Recovery Task Force to secure long-term recovery as the clear responsibility of the Council. That was the impression that I had at the time, that it was us against them, even though in my view we needed to work together to get this result.. In April 1996 it had sub-contracted the management of its entire social housing stock to a private entity, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO). /F11 12 0 R We recognise our responsibility to ensure that the investigative process is not hampered or undermined in any way.. The lifts are constantly breaking down, said Jose. OToole, who also lives in Burnham House, said he was reassuring tenants that the building is safe because there was a fire in a 10th-storey flat in a neighbouring block two years ago which was contained. WebAt our core, GK Real Estate is an entrepreneurial, opportunity-driven organization. /Rotate 0