Inquiry ‘will expose cancerous management of tower’

A GRENFELL resident who predicted a year before the tragedy that its refurbishment posed a fire risk yesterday claimed that the public inquiry will expose ‘rotten and cancerous’ management of the block.

Edward Daffarn, 56, who narrowly escaped the blaze from his 13th floor flat, wrote a scathing blog in 2016 on the safety risks of the £10million overhaul, during which a cheap flammable cladding blamed for spreading the flames was installed.

In an interview in the Guardian yesterday, the mental health social worker said residents’ fears were dismissed with a ‘feudal’ attitude by Kensington and Chelsea Council and the tenant management organisation (TMO).

He added: ‘Think of a typical landlord relationship with responsibilities, duties and care, and forget that. It was either adversarial or hands-off. I can’t begin to express the level of contempt they had for us residents. We were the barrier to the big pot of money.’

In 2016, Mr Daffarn wrote: ‘Only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord 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 public inquiry into the fire, which could last until 2020, will hear evidence from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which owns the building, and the block’s landlord, Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation. The cladding subcontractor and the firm which made the cladding panels and insulation will also provide statements.

Mr Daffarn added: ‘Every single link in this chain is going to be found to be rotten and cancerous. The way the TMO operated, the handling of contracts, the construction, through to the building regulations and the materials that were used.’