Six-figure payout for council boss forced to quit over tower blaze
THE council boss forced to quit over the Grenfell Tower disaster is to receive a six-figure pay-off, The Daily Telegraph has been told.
Nicholas Holgate, who was paid £193,000 a year as chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea council, announced his resignation on Wednesday night, a week after the blaze.
Robert Black, the £150,000-a-year head of the housing management company that ran Grenfell Tower, is also under pressure to quit after Theresa May said the first act of Kensington’s new council boss would be to “look at” how his organisation was run.
In a statement, Mr Holgate accused Sajid Javid, the Cabinet minister in charge of local government, of interfering to force his dismissal.
“On Tuesday 20 June, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government required the Leader of the Council to seek my resignation,” said Mr Holgate in a statement.
Sources have told The Telegraph that Mr Holgate will be entitled to compensation for losing his job, understood to be equivalent to at least six months’ pay that covers his half-year notice period. That equates to about £100,000.
It is not clear if Mr Holgate could attempt to bring a legal action over the alleged ministerial interference. Sharon Shoesmith, who was sacked by then education secretary Ed Balls over the Baby P scandal, was awarded £679,452 after she sued for unfair dismissal.
Kensington and Chelsea council has been heavily criticised for its slow response to the tragedy, while a series of official investigations, including a criminal inquiry, continue.
Mr Holgate, a Cambridge graduate and former HM Treasury official, said he wanted to remain in the job but had been forced to quit. He added: “If I stayed, my presence would be a distraction.”
The Justice4grenfell campaign welcomed his resignation. Yvette Williams, a spokeswoman, said: “It was the right thing to do, the community had been abandoned by the local authority.”
David Lammy, the Labour MP whose friend Khadija Saye was killed in the fire, said although Mr Holgate’s resignation was welcomed, it was not enough and that Nicholas Pagetbrown, the elected Conservative leader of the council, should also quit.
Mr Lammy said: “He has lost the faith of the people on the street.”
Mr Paget-brown is believed to have offered his resignation but it was rejected. One source said no senior councillor wanted to take the role on.
Mr Black, the chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, which was in charge of Grenfell Tower on behalf of the council, is also under pressure to quit. Residents repeatedly voiced their concerns but they were ignored. Mrs May told MPS yesterday: “The issue of the tenant management organisation … has come across loud and clear from my conversations with local residents.”
Whitehall sources said Mr Javid had been “receiving quite concerning reports from the agencies involved about the response from Kensington and Chelsea”. The source added: “Sajid very seriously expressed that concern back to the council and the decision about what to do rested with them”.