Grenfell victims were let down by council’s failure to rehouse them promptly

GRENFELL Tower survivors were let down and their trauma worsened by poor efforts of the local authority to rehouse them, a report claims.

Ahead of Thursday’s one-year anniversary of the fire, in which 72 people died, the North Kensington Law Centre said the performance of the local council had “fallen way short”.

This resulted in “unacceptable delays” which added to the community’s suffering, and may continue to do so if the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) does not take action.

Currently, 82 households from the Tower and Grenfell Walk are living in permanent homes and 52 are in temporary accommodation, the local authority said.

That leaves 69 households in hotels.

Of these, the council said just five households were yet to accept an offer of accommodation, while 90 per cent of properties were ready to move into.

The Government and the local council previously set a deadline of the anniversary to have all former residents in new homes.

The report said: “The council’s interaction with residents in the period after the fire had the capacity to alleviate some of the trauma of survivors, but instead too often only exacerbated it.

“In the last 12 months, RBKC has failed to fully grasp this reality and has let down survivors as a result.”

The report cited lack of trust as a “significant barrier” to the rehousing process, adding that “all too often the council’s preventable mistakes have worsened an already dismal situation”.

Housing Secretary James Brokenshire has now written to all Grenfell Tower survivors who remain in hotels, pledging he will “not rest until everyone is settled into new homes”.

Mr Brokenshire, updating the Commons on the progress of rehousing those affected, said that 198 out of 203 households had accepted a permanent or temporary accommodation offer, with 134 having moved in.

Mr Brokenshire, who was flanked by the Prime Minister, told MPS he was “very concerned” about the number of households still in hotels.

He said: “The 14 June 2017 saw the greatest loss of life in a residential fire since the Second World War – 71 people lost their lives on the night of the fire and a former tower resident who was rescued from the 19th floor passed away earlier this year.

“A catastrophe of this kind should never have happened in the UK in 2017 and when it did the initial response was not good enough.

“I remain very concerned about the 43 households who are living in hotels. My ministerial team has met with many of them and I personally have written to all of them to find out what barriers exist in each individual case and how we can overcome them.

“This is not where any of us wanted to be a year on from the fire. While there has been progress in recent weeks, overall the pace has been too slow. We will not rest until everyone is settled into new homes.”