‘Grenfell and the continued fight for justice’

Nine years ago at 12.54 an electrical fire broke out in a flat in North Kensington.

As the result of years of neglect and failures by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and the refusal of the council and private companies to listen to and prioritise the safety of the residents of Grenfell Tower, 72 of people lost their lives that night. They will be forever in our hearts.

The disaster of Grenfell is magnified by the fact that it was entirely preventable. Kensington and Chelsea council acknowledged during the Grenfell Inquiry that they ‘failed to listen to and involve residents in decisions affecting their lives [and] lacked proper systems of oversight and accountability’. In their own words, responding to the Grenfell Inquiry Report, they said ‘we cannot be the sole judge of our own progress. Given the impact of our failures and the commensurate breakdown in trust, external scrutiny and challenge must be built into our approach.’

Nine years on from the Grenfell fire, the Labour government has made the difficult choice to begin the work of deconstructing the tower, in preparation for a permanent memorial to the 72.

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The slow work of holding those responsible to account has also made progress this year – as the Metropolitan Police handed over the results of their investigation to the Crown Prosecution Service last month, with charges expected before the end of the year. We know that the most serious charges are being considered for the individuals and organisations responsible.

The fight for justice has been slow and painful, and we know the year ahead will be hard for the bereaved and survivors.

To add insult to injury, in Kensington and Chelsea hundreds of residents still live in unsafe, unhealthy homes. RBKC has the third highest number of housing complaints in the country and the social housing regulator recently found “serious failings” in their housing department. A third of their homes do not meet the Decent Homes Standard.

Housing issues dominate the casework received by the group of Labour councillors I lead, with residents constantly battling mould, damp and slow repairs. During last month’s record heatwave, a fault in the heating network on the Grenfell estate itself left residents unable to turn their radiators off, despite outside temperatures soaring to 34 degrees.

Almost a decade has passed and still, those in social housing continue to be denied dignity, with residents’ voices too often ignored, sidelined or silenced.

Despite acknowledging that a lack of independent oversight contributed to the Grenfell disaster, now the Conservative leadership of the council is seeking to duck responsibility and avoid hard questions.

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Following the local elections, the Conservative leadership of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea chose to break a nine-year commitment to independent oversight and appointed one of their own councillors from the south of the borough as Chair of the Housing and Communities Select Committee. This committee, which is responsible for overseeing the borough’s housing stock and holding the council to account on behalf of all social tenants, has been chaired by an opposition member since the Grenfell fire, yet now the Tories will once again mark their own homework.

RBKC is the most unequal local authority in England, despite being the highest-income borough in the country, with North Kensington home to several of the capital’s most deprived wards. Alongside some of the most expensive real estate in the country, the council continues to allow residents to live in unsafe homes.

Labour councillors in North Kensington know that unsafe housing ruins lives, and contributes to the 17 year life expectancy gap between the wards we represent in the north and the Tory-held south of the borough.

That’s why, in the local elections this May, Labour stood on the promise to tackle inequality in our borough and work for a fairer Kensington & Chelsea. We will continue to hold this council to account, and support our residents in their demands for a safe home, timely repairs and to be treated with dignity.

As we remember the 72 people who lost their lives that night, we must also look to the future. We stand in solidarity with the bereaved as they continue to fight for justice and we  learn from their strength, resilience and dignity. We must embody those qualities as we continue to fight for justice, not only for the residents of Grenfell Tower, but for all those who continue to live in homes that do not afford them the safety and long, healthy lives they deserve.

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