THE PROFITS OF MISERY
OWNER OF CLADDING COMPANY ACCUSED OF £2.5M TAX AVOIDANCE SCHEME
Six-figure salaries, yachts, £2m mansions and even a gong — just some of the fabulous rewards of the people accused of fitting out Grenfell Tower on the cheap. But, as we reveal, they’re mired in claims of tax avoidance, shoddy work and shameful mismanagement
Fay Edwards was awarded the British Empire Medal ‘for services to the community’. she received the famous rose-pink ribbon during a ceremony at the Tower of London in 2016 and was invited to a Buckingham Palace garden party. ‘when I found out, I was in shock,’ she said after the presentation. ‘I couldn’t believe it.’
she was not the only one. Indeed, few gongs could have been greeted with more shock or disbelief, at least in certain quarters.
For Mrs Edwards was — and still is — chairman of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), which operates Grenfell Tower on behalf of the council; the 24-storey block became the scene of Britain’s worst fire disaster in living memory this week.
Now, many believe Mrs Edwards and her colleagues on KCTMO have questions to answer along with the local council and a string of other companies involved in the maintenance and refurbishment of the building.
Those questions were being asked even at the time Mrs Edwards was named as a ‘local hero’ in the Queen’s New year’s honours list, when KCTMO had already been accused of a litany of safety failures which had turned Grenfell Tower into a ‘catastrophe’ waiting to happen.
Nevertheless, she was nominated, with breathtaking hubris, by robert Black, 57, chief executive of KCTMO, who praised her ‘strategic leadership’ which had gained the ‘respect of both residents and the local council’.
Tragically, many of those ‘residents’ were caught up in the dreadful scenes early on wednesday morning — and there aren’t many who don’t believe the tragedy could have been prevented.
Few residents, now or then, view Mrs Edwards and her colleagues as ‘local heroes’.
Grenfell Tower is situated on a council estate near Notting Hill, a landscape of brutalist sky-scraping apartment blocks and graffitistrewn underpasses sitting cheekby-jowl with some of the capital’s most expensive postcodes.
‘Grenfell is where they shove all the people who don’t have any choice,’ is how one local described the seventies block — a sentiment which has deepened the sense of injustice at what happened there.
The perverse irony is that such buildings can provide rich pickings for private companies desperate, in some cases, to cut costs and maximise profits.
ANuMBEr of firms that won lucrative contracts to carry out work for KCTMO have controversial track records. One went into liquidation, owing creditors more than £1 million, before emerging under a different name. another had a contract terminated (by another local authority) for ‘performance’ which was ‘falling short of requirements’.
In all, at least nine contractors and sub-contractors were involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell, raising concerns among fire safety experts about the quality of supervision and accountability.
The executives who run these companies enjoy six-figure salaries, drive luxury cars and live in millionpound homes. The contrast between their privileged lifestyles and the fate of the Grenfell Tower tenants — where, to quote a former fire officer, there was a failure of every ‘component of fire safety and building management’ — is a disturbing sub-plot to the scandal.
Fay Edwards, who is in her 70s, sat on the tender panel and was involved in the interview process when at least one of the contracts was awarded (to building company rydon), according to industry bible Construction News.
she is one of 15 people who sit on the board of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (comprising eight residents, four council-appointed members and three independent members).
The four-strong (salaried) executive team is headed by robert Black, the chief executive of KCTMO. The organisation took over the management of all Kensington and Chelsea’s housing stock in 1996. The council retains ownership of the housing but KCTMO collects rent and is responsible for maintenance.
while KCTMO might be a notfor-profit organisation, chief executive Mr Black is believed to be paid around £150,000 a year.
Tenants say that in the seven years he has been in the job, his package — including gold-plated local government pension — has topped £1 million.
a separate company, called KCTMO repairs, is run by executive director sacha Jevans, 47.
according to the latest accounts, its highest paid executive (Ms Jevans, presumably, since she is in charge of the operation) earns £106,000 a year.
Ordinarily, this would not be a source of controversy.
But over the past few years a catalogue of complaints by tenants, who formed the Grenfell action Group, highlighted conditions inside the tower block.
The titles of the group’s online posts tell their own story . . . ‘another Fire safety scandal’ ... ‘The disempowered Of Grenfell Tower’ ... ‘Grenfell Tower — From Bad To worse’ ... ‘More Trouble at Grenfell Tower’.
a number of issues were raised, including that there was not sufficient access to the block, that the only stairs out of the tower did not amount to a sufficient fire escape and were badly lit, and that fire safety equipment was not being tested properly. repeated power surges had led to electrical appliances such as fridges, kettles and computer terminals catching fire.
In November, the tragically prescient warning appeared on the Grenfell action Group blog: ‘Only an incident that results in serious loss of life’ would bring muchneeded scrutiny.
By then, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) had hired private contractor rydon to refurbish Grenfell Tower.
rydon’s £8.6 million contract included the installation of the external cladding now being investigated as a potential factor in the fire’s rapid spread.
The East sussex-based company insists its work complied with building regulations. In July 2013, before work had commenced at Grenfell, rydon won a five-year contract with sutton Council in south London.
within months, rydon’s performance was ‘falling short of requirements’. repairs by sutton Council’s maintenance division failed to meet target times and resulted in ‘low levels of resident satisfaction’, according to one report.
In december 2014, sutton Housing Partnership, which manages