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The iconic Conservative council that owns the Grenfell Tower apologized for putting profits before people in a series of deals, finalized before the 2017 fire, that rented public property for commercial gain.
The apology, issued by Elizabeth Campbell, head of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), related to the sale of leases at a public library, a teacher training center used by council staff working in family services, children and education, and a building housing a citizens’ advice office, for private school operators, including Notting Hill Preparatory School, which charges £ 21,000 a year per pupil.
The high school will sublease part of the Citizens Advice building to the Pret a Manger sandwich chain. The assets were all in the more disadvantaged north of the district near Grenfell and were part of a broader ownership strategy for the area intended in part to increase revenue for the city council.
A fourth transaction related to the board’s £ 25 million purchase of an adult education center that it planned to convert to a mixed-use development that includes private housing. After a local campaign against the measure, the council sold it to the Department of Education for £ 10 million.
“Before 2017, the council did not find the right balance between economic benefits and social benefits,” Campbell said. “Too often, the council puts the narrow goal of generating business income over the broader goal of providing benefits to our broader community. We fall below the bar in consultation, transparency, scrutiny and politics. We cannot say with our hands on our hearts that residents were involved every step of the way, or that the city council put their interests first, and for that we apologize. “
Later this year, council leaders and officials involved in the Grenfell Tower remodel will face cross-examination in the public inquiry into the June 14, 2017 fire, which claimed 72 lives. You’ve already heard how the cost reduction in remodeling between 2012 and 2016 resulted in the use of cheaper and more combustible coatings. He heard how city hall builders treated the residents who objected as “rebels” and accused them of being “vocal and aggressive.”
Just weeks after the fire, RBKC halted property development projects and key councilors in charge of the schemes resigned, including cabinet member in charge of housing, Rock Feilding-Mellen, and leader, Nick Paget-Brown. .
Campbell’s apology came when the board released an independent report on the transactions that found deficiencies in scrutinizing decisions, but concluded that there had been no wrongdoing.
Campbell said that “doing nothing wrong doesn’t mean you do everything right.” He said there is a “depth of feeling and mistrust that still exists between the council and parts of our communities.”
“We will continue to shift our focus so that wherever possible we put social value and community interests first, beyond property and in everything we do,” he said.
Ed Daffarn, a Grenfell survivor who questioned several of the property deals prior to the fire, said: “It is time for RBKC to start taking possession of its past misdemeanors, as there can be no recovery for the Grenfell community without the truth.
“This report somehow captures the culture of a local authority that had metamorphosed into an agent for real estate development; an organization that treated the North Kensington community with contempt while playing its wicked game of monopoly on our public assets. This callous disregard for residents’ opinions should never be repeated. “
A response to the independent report by the council’s chief executive, Barry Quirk, set out the council’s failures in the context of David Cameron’s coalition government’s 2010 austerity policies, which required local authorities across the country to find new ways. fundraising.
“The period beginning in 2010 established new orthodoxies in local government, as the then government’s approach to fiscal consolidation led to substantial reductions in central government support or national taxpayer funding for local government,” he wrote. “In the period from 2010 to 2017, the ‘basic spending power’ of councils was drastically reduced. Across London, the ‘buying power’ of councils fell by an average of 32%. “
