Housing Grenfell Tower survivors ‘has cost much more than building it’

REHOUSING the survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire has cost up to four times as much as building the tower itself, it has emerged.

Almost £21 million was spent putting them up in hotel rooms between the fire last June and mid-february, the equivalent of around £100,000 per family, or £400 a day.

The local authority spent a further £8million supporting the families and individuals who had lost everything.

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council has been criticised for the time it has taken to find homes for the tenants since the fire left 71 dead and hundreds destitute on June 14.

Emma Dent Coad, Labour MP for Kensington and a borough councillor, said architects estimated it would have cost around £500,000 to build Grenfell Tower in the Seventies.

The 24-storey block was constructed between 1972 and 1974, meaning in today’s money the sum would be £6.2 million – less than a third of the council’s hotel expenditure.

Council data, released under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that between June 14 2017 and Feb 15 2018, £20.9 million was spent on rooms at 53 hotels. Ms Dent Coad condemned the findings and called for commissioners to take over the rehousing task. She said: “Kensington and Chelsea council taxpayers will be shocked to hear that our wasteful and incompetent council has already spent nearly £30million keeping survivors and bereaved families in hotels.

“The Tower would have cost in the region of £500,000 when first built. It was a very solid construction built to last 100 years. I can’t look at it now.

“I spent a great deal of time visiting displaced families in hotels, and without exception they want permanent homes which suit their needs, but are not being offered anything suitable.

“Their lives are not only on hold; for many this has lost them jobs and businesses, and destroyed their ability to work or study.”

But Kim Taylor Smith, the deputy council leader, questioned whether “she would prefer us to not spend money on giving people a roof over their head”. He said 307 homes secured by the council for £235 million was proof that efforts were being made to rehouse people. Ms Dent retorted: “So what the hell are RBKC doing spending a fortune on hotels when there are supposedly 300 flats out there?”

The council said it had spent £235m to secure 307 homes to ensure that people had maximum choice. It is understood the Government is to meet half the cost of the rehousing efforts.