Council leader ‘did not visit tower blocks before Grenfell’
The new leader of Kensington council has admitted she never visited any of the high rise tower blocks in the borough before the Grenfell tragedy.
Elizabeth Campbell made the confession as she warned it could take a “generation” before residents could trust their council again.
Asked whether she had been in any high rise buildings before the fire, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I haven’t been into the high-rise council blocks before, but I am certainly doing that now.”
Ms Campbell pledged the authority would use its financial reserves to build more council housing in the wake of the disaster.
She takes up her post next week after the previous Tory leader was accused of being out of touch. Ms Campbell said: “I make this guarantee that we are going to be the first council in London who are going to build more council homes.”
Pressed on how much of the council’s reserves of £274 million would be used for new housing, Ms Campbell said: “We will definitely put stuff towards it because we have saved for emergency situations.”