It did not comment on the Chalcot Estate. Maybe stinks would be a more apposite word. /F6 21 0 R The remains of Grenfell Tower. /F4 19 0 R This means taking in house the ALMO that can no longer masquerade as a TMO, but all Senior Officers in the Council are under legal orders to say nothing; this includes the Kensington and Chelsea TMO, now with a new chief executive. /MediaBox [0.0 0.0 595.2 857.28] This could form an ongoing violation of Article 2 of the ECHR, even in a domestic court of law. The Council at the same time cut the Council Tax of the highest band of tax-payers. In sharp contrast to this model, TMOs are locally based, grassroots community groups that want to improve local conditions in their social housing estate or small area. /F3 18 0 R Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation Governments of all parties have supported the development of TMOs since the 1980s, funding training and introducing the Right to Manage. London's high-rise tenants cite concerns in wake of Grenfell The lessons of Grenfell resonate across the entire social housing world. From 2015 the Birmingham City Council have closed down that Ladywood Housing Liaison Board, using an entirely false excuse (see my second comment, which has not yet appeared on this page). Another issue raised by Mr Daffarn centred on a power surge at the tower in May 2013. Witness David Collins said the fire safety issues were a product of the culture and leadership at KCTMO. They only put on fire doors after the fire in Adair Tower last October. The police were not transparent about the Grenfell death toll: why does it matter now? The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. /Annots [] An ALMO is a government-approved public structure, wholly owned and controlled by the Council, which separates the Councils landlord services from other Council functions such as schools, libraries, and swimming pools. /Parent 2 0 R The fact that all the tenants can become members amounts to little as all they can do is elect some of the Board. On 14 June 2017 a large fire engulfed Grenfell Tower, a 24-floor, 120-flat block managed by KCTMO. In the early hours of the morning of 14th June 2017 a fire broke out in one of the fourth-floor flats at a recently renovated tower block at Grenfell Tower, London, a social housing complex of almost 1,000 homes. /F5 20 0 R The Guardian has also learned that representatives of the KCTMO and the councils planners were shown a mock-up of the cladding system on site in the summer of 2014. Asked if she would have made any contribution in ensuring these deficiencies were fixed, she said: I am sure there was discussion in the monthly health and safety meetings. Typically, a chain of events leading to the catastrophe is triggered by a breakdown within a structure that fails to address problems as they occur and mitigate risks as they arise. Image obtained from https://www.grenfellunited.org/. /Type /Catalog >> /F2 17 0 R When it became an ALMO in 2002, the government was at first insisting on its losing its tenant majority on the board. /F7 9 0 R This enables effective governance by identifying and addressing governance risk and providing a construct for evaluating how managements responsibilities fit with full oversight responsibilities. 7 0 obj Both products were certified according to the European fire resistance standard. >> /Annots [] /F10 10 0 R 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. << 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. 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. It is nevertheless understood that fires are statistically calculable occurrences and the extent of the fire that followed the initial source and the difficulty in accessing the building and saving lives can be attributed to failures to properly manage the safety of the building. /Xi1 24 0 R The TMO was the organisation appointed by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to run its entire council housing stock. /ProcSet [/PDF /Text /ImageB /ImageC /ImageI] /Type /Page /Type /Pages /F4 19 0 R Since January 2018, the housing has been directly managed by the council. /F3 18 0 R The TMO was set up on 1 April 1996,[1] under the UK Government's Housing (Right to Manage) Regulations 1994. /F10 10 0 R The handback took place on 1 March 2018. The number of companies and organisations that Scotland Yard detectives investigating the disaster know so far to have played a role in the refurbishment is more than 60. /F11 12 0 R 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. It needs to be more like the Housing Liaison Board we had in Ladywood until the council chose to get rid of it (on bogus excuse) because some people have other priorities than honest effective tenant involvement. And (2) that a board of 8 tenants is wholly inadequate for managing or even just supervising such a large number of 10,000 properties. x\s6_kgX9zqD3=m'%=o?` RMg9oo X|YejwUSq|,~Z,^bj;,i"22|{dl[yo~U27KO 1s7U>\$*d,`_pW4 (H4_f,MP,)f. Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Mr Daffarn disputed being disruptive but accepted he had a difficult relationship with the councillor. The Grenfell Tower fire has become an iconic symbol of the catastrophic events that can occur if there is a failure of corporate governance. In one reply, residents were told KCTMO had been assured recent works were safe by the London Fire Brigade and the National Grid. VideoThe secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, LGBT troops take love for Eurovision to front line, Why an Indian comedian is challenging fake news rules. /F1 16 0 R She explains why the difference matters in light of the disaster at Grenfell. The DeKalb Area Rental Association is a nonprofit, educational organization representing rental housing units in DeKalb, Illinois, and its immediate My point is this: it is a serious and dangerous error to draw the lesson that KCTMO was not really a TMO. Run by a board of 13 tenants, it was described at the time as "one of Britain's most ambitious property management schemes".[5]. Tap above to watch video coverage of the Grenfell Inquiry. /F7 9 0 R Mr Daffarn wrote to project managers and the KCTMO that the planned closure of a car park for work on the tower would make the problem worse. doesnt it just make it harder to find out who is responsible? Grenfell /Xi4 28 0 R 2 0 obj There was further evidence of the drive to cut costs in an urgent nudge email KCTMOs project manager sent to Artelia, its cost consultant, about cladding prices. Since the [KCTMO] took over from the council, they have made it worse.. (2019). It has now lost its role on the /Pages 2 0 R /Im31 26 0 R The year before the fire, Mr Daffarn's blog, which he wrote with Francis O'Connor, said: "It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders.". 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. Mr Daffarn fought a campaign against the KCTMO which had been set up as an "arm's length" organisation to manage council property on behalf of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. >> Yet overall, TMOs have outperformed their local council landlords on rent arrears, re-letting flats, speed of repair, cost and tenant satisfaction. It stated that there are only a handful of arrangements in the policy and many are missing such as pressure vessels, working at height and contractor management. /F6 21 0 R /F8 11 0 R [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. Artelia said on Friday none of its roles involved the design of the project, or specification and/or approval of materials. WebKENSINGTON AND CHELSEA TENANT MANAGEMENT ORGANISATION Grenfell Review Scoping Meetin~ Wednesday 24u~ February 2016 at 5pm Board Room, 346 /F6 21 0 R /F3 18 0 R Trellick Tower is a listed building and at least they cant put any cladding on it. The residents were also alarmed by the findings of a fire risk assessment which they obtained after repeated emails. 1 Giltspur Street London. Grenfell They have been hiding from residents; they have been hiding from backbench councillors for over a week.. Grenfell residents not listened to (KCTMOs responses) made me have the impression that the council would essentially be against the residents because they might think: They keep complaining so we need to prove that we are right,' Mr Chapman told the inquiry on Monday. endobj 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. Of course we are worried. Is climate change killing Australian wine? And most significantly the Council signed off on a refurbishment contract with the contractor Rydon, which wrapped the tower in highly flammable ACM cladding in a drive to save cost. Artelia, a French-owned company, fulfilled several roles for KCTMO. >> They negotiate a management agreement with their council landlord to take on limited, local responsibilities, paid for out of an allowance from their rents. It stated: We do not see it necessary to instruct or fund an independent adjudicator at this time.. /Font << /F2 17 0 R No, the correct lesson is twofold: (1) that a board of 8 tenants with 7 professionals will be dominated by the professionals and fail to represent the tenants. However, the inquiry has previously found that the first fire engines called to the tower were able to park close to the main entrance and get access to water mains. /Contents 29 0 R Rydon did not comment on the Camden flats. /F12 15 0 R Not according to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_and_Chelsea_TMO which states that in 2017 it had a huge total of EIGHT residents on its board of thirteen (the other seven being non-residents), representing nearly TEN THOUSAND properties. He emailed London Fire Brigade (LFB) in March 2014 warning that "if there was a major fire in Grenfell Tower and fire brigade access ever became an issue we would use the evidence recorded on our blog and in extensive email correspondence to ensure that those in charge at the TMO (Tenant Management Organisation) would face extremely serious consequences". They range from around 100 to 1500 rented properties in a single estate or area. How to cite this blogpost (Harvard style), Muzamil Khan N and Haynes P (2021) The Role of Corporate Governance Failure in the Grnfell Tower Fire Available at:https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/housing-after-grenfell/blog/2021/08/role-corporate-governance-failure-grenfell-tower-fire (Accessed [date]). The ECHR must be interpreted in the light of its object and purpose. The lack of health and safety regulation is therefore a clear a failure on the part of the state to protect the right to life under Article 2 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) 1950. 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. [6] Labour councillor and now MP, Emma Dent Coad was a council-appointed board member from 2008[7] to 31 October 2012. > View this hearing. 6 0 obj There are smoke alarms, but no fire alarms in the building, said one tenant, who did not want to be named. When a catastrophic event occurs, it is generally too simplistic to attribute blame to a prime cause or specific event. [11][12], Grenfell Action Group, the block's tenant organisation, had repeatedly warned of major fire safety lapses since 2013. In total, over 250 fire fighters supported by 70 fire engines fought for over seven hours to control the blaze and helped 223 residents to evacuate from the worst residential blaze experienced in the UK during peacetime for a century. Indeed, AVOIDANCE of tenant involvement. Under its long-term public remit it had developed a suitably established system for managing properties, employing dedicated individuals with a clear understanding of their roles, with little scope for compromising on safety and largely free of political influence. These breakdowns relate to a wide variety of governance failure sources, not least due to the tenant management organisations focus on a series of cost reductions rather than more precautionary measures, a lack of engagement or apparent concern with other stakeholder groups, and decision making by the local council likely to be motivated by negative racial and social class stereotypes about tenants. Edward Daffarn described Grenfell Tower's management as a "mini-mafia", Seventy-two people died in the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017. 3 0 obj [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]. When conceptualised this way, a corporate governance framework can be perceived as a systematic approach to prevent failings by identifying inherent risks and addressing collective actions to mitigate these risks and foresee negative outcomes or potential threats. It was set up to cover the whole borough and simply took on the existing council housing department and stock. /F3 18 0 R The public inquiry will take many months to reveal the truth; prosecutions may take even longer. /F5 20 0 R They should have spent some of that money., Jose del Faria, 53, lives on the 11th floor of Adair Tower. /Font << A fire had started in a flat on the third floor. We possess the insight and flexibility to adjust to a changing real estate market. What is the actual purpose of this TMOs? Until April 2015, Artelia was also a key project adviser on construction health and safety risk management matters. Andrew Kinnier QC, for the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, said that a document in 2013 viewed the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO), 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. 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. The Grenfell Tower formed one part of the Lancaster West Estate envisioned in the 1960s and completed in the 1970s (MacLeod, 2018, p.467). It is therefore possible, that the Council could be made liable in judicial review proceedings for its systemic regulatory failures, as the residents only discovered, post-Grenfell, that their homes were unsafe. Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation has not responded to the Guardian about the complaints raised by tenants at Adair Tower. But Paget-Brown then adjourned the meeting, saying it could not continue with journalists present as this could prejudice the official inquiry, which will be led by Sir Martin Moore-Bick, a retired court of appeal judge. /Length 3951 The windows blew, flames were jumping out the window and there was some damage to the concrete, but the cladding and the insulation held, he said. The minutes also suggest that even though the design for the cladding was well under way, fire consultants had yet to be appointed. The TMO has a board comprising eight residents, four council-appointed members and three independent members. [15] In the aftermath of the disaster, KCTMO has been further criticised for appealing to the public for donations to support the victims, despite giving no indication that it is donating to them itself. How to cite this blog post (Harvard style), Nadj, Daniela. /Im49 35 0 R Ultimately, in the case of Grenfell Tower, the overriding objective of the (corporate bodys) governance framework should have been to keep residents safe. Date: 6 June 2018. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. The document says there were issues which needed attention regarding planned maintenance. /F4 19 0 R (modern). I had a sense that the people in the TMO and RBKC looked down on the residents of Grenfell Tower and were brushing us off, he said. On the night of the fire, Mr Chapmans wife Dr Naomi Li was one of the last people to escape the building alive. /Parent 2 0 R Id say (fire safety and poor works) are outcomes whether you have a safe building, its all about the leadership and the culture, he said. Following the tragic fire in June 2017, changes were made which ultimately led to the KCTMO handing back delivery of all day-to-day housing and related support services to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea at the end of February 2018. All queries about housing services should be directed to the Council.

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