She explains why the difference matters in light of the disaster at Grenfell. /F8 11 0 R /F11 12 0 R To find out more about cookies and change your preferences, visit our, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_and_Chelsea_TMO, How Tenant Management Organisations have wrongly been associated with Grenfell, British Government @ LSE General Election 2015 Event Series, Write for the LSE British Politics and Policy blog, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. /Type /Page Fire-resistant zinc cladding approved by residents of Grenfell Tower was replaced in the refurbishment contract with cheaper aluminium panels to save 293,368, according to documents seen by the Guardian. /Xi6 30 0 R /F4 19 0 R It became an ALMO in 2002 in response to the (Labour) governments funding of Decent Homes and the fact that they wouldnt give the funding to local authorities (or TMOs). An effective governance programme includes effective risk management providing clarity in defining roles, delineating duties, preventing duplicated efforts, identifying potential blind-spots, and assisting these efforts by providing structure to policies and tools. WebKensington and Chelsea TMO ( KCTMO) was the largest tenant management organisation (TMO) in England, managing nearly 10,000 properties on behalf of Concerned residents in the Chalcot Estate in Swiss Cottage asked Camden council on Thursday for a copy of the specifications for the rainfall cladding installed by housing contractor Rydon 11 years ago. In April 1996 it had sub-contracted the management of its entire social housing stock to a private entity, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Lees comment gives some of the background. Considered one of the worst man-made disasters in post-World War II Britain, the Grenfell Tower fire of June 14th, 2017 is a breach of the right to life, an assault on human dignity and a manifestation of stark inequality in the UK. The TMO was set up on 1 April 1996,[1] under the UK Government's Housing (Right to Manage) Regulations 1994. >> [6] Labour councillor and now MP, Emma Dent Coad was a council-appointed board member from 2008[7] to 31 October 2012. (KCTMOs responses) made me have the impression that the council would essentially be against the residents because they might think: They keep complaining so we need to prove that we are right,' Mr Chapman told the inquiry on Monday. Tap above to watch video coverage of the Grenfell Inquiry. /CropBox [0.0 0.0 595.2 857.28] /F12 15 0 R /CropBox [0.0 0.0 595.2 857.28] Artelia said on Friday none of its roles involved the design of the project, or specification and/or approval of materials. Another couple, who bought a flat on the ninth floor of Adair Tower, said they saw little in return for the 4,000 service fee they pay to the landlord each year. /Rotate 0 /Type /Pages Trellick Tower is a listed building and at least they cant put any cladding on it. ATIC, a lobby group for tenant control, with support of NFTMO and co-op housing groups, organised a meeting where Lord Falconer, the housing minister, was persuaded by Gordon Perry, the then CEO of KCTMO, to agree a special exception for KCTMO to remain tenant-controlled while gaining ALMO status and the associated capital investment. Grenfell Tower fire: six victims provisionally identified, say police latest updates, High-rise towers are safe but tougher inspections needed, say experts, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. The Grenfell Tower Fire as a Breach of the Right to Life. KCTMO declined to comment on the material swap. This blog post discusses the conditions of corporate governance failure within the network of stakeholders in the context of the management and refurbishment of Grenfell Tower. >> /Font << 3 0 obj We possess the insight and flexibility to adjust to a changing real estate market. However, the inquiry has previously found that the first fire engines called to the tower were able to park close to the main entrance and get access to water mains. We tried every way we could possibly find to get a voice and be heard, he said. /F8 11 0 R Your email address will not be published. In total, over 250 fire fighters supported by 70 fire engines fought for over seven hours to control the blaze and helped 223 residents to evacuate from the worst residential blaze experienced in the UK during peacetime for a century. The lack of health and safety regulation is therefore a clear a failure on the part of the state to protect the right to life under Article 2 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) 1950. Not according to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_and_Chelsea_TMO which states that in 2017 it had a huge total of EIGHT residents on its board of thirteen (the other seven being non-residents), representing nearly TEN THOUSAND properties. /F3 18 0 R Following the fire, The Grenfell Tower Inquiry was established to establish the cause and origin of the fire and in a second phase to examine the buildings refurbishment and external cladding, examining key issues related to the responsibility for maintaining the safety of the building and the residents. Tenant Management Organisations such as KCTMO are founded when residents create a corporate body, which appoints a management committee to run the body, funded by management fees paid by the Council under the agreement. Both products were certified according to the European fire resistance standard. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. OToole, who also lives in Burnham House, said he was reassuring tenants that the building is safe because there was a fire in a 10th-storey flat in a neighbouring block two years ago which was contained. /F5 20 0 R However, examining the multiple failings shows that when key decision-making organisations failed to meet their obligations under the framework, there were few consequences. (2019). The aluminium cladding is suspected of having helped spread the fire that claimed at least 80 lives. A fire at the Grenfell Tower block in west London in June 2017 claimed 72 lives. /F4 19 0 R /F10 10 0 R Edward Daffarn described Grenfell Tower's management as a "mini-mafia", Seventy-two people died in the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017. But Paget-Brown then adjourned the meeting, saying it could not continue with journalists present as this could prejudice the official inquiry, which will be led by Sir Martin Moore-Bick, a retired court of appeal judge. They fear their lives could also be at risk if the cladding is found to be an issue in the Grenfell inferno, which has killed at least 17 people. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. When the Grenfell fire disaster happened, very few people had heard of Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs). Grenfell Tower, covered up after the tragic fire in June 2017, Loz Pycock, shared under the CC BY-SA 2.0 licence. At Adair Tower in Kensington and Chelsea, Fabio Freemantle, 33, lives on the 13th and highest floor. They range from around 100 to 1500 rented properties in a single estate or area. /Xi7 31 0 R [The KCTMO] doesnt spend enough on safety. /Im58 40 0 R [16], In August 2017, it was announced that KCTMO would no longer manage the Lancaster West Estate containing Grenfell Tower, which would come under direct council control. Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation opening statement. doesnt it just make it harder to find out who is responsible? The fire regulations are clearly out of date and it was a political decision not to update them.. /F11 12 0 R Families who live in nearby Adair Tower in north Kensington, also operated by Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation (KCTMO), have instructions to stay in their homes in the event of a fire. /Resources << /F4 19 0 R Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, Grenfell residents looked down on by housing chiefs, inquiry hears, Grenfell manager binned notes on refurbishment after fire, Grenfell contractor misrepresented cladding price to pocket savings, Firms in Grenfell Tower inquiry given immunity from prosecution, Grenfell report must criticise authorities, say survivors and bereaved, List of Grenfell's vulnerable tenants 'was 15 years out of date', Grenfell Tower manager confronted over 'cheap' refurbishment. Additionally, the knowledge accumulated through the previous arrangements was not retained within the new corporate body: priorities changed, partly through the perception that tenant involvement conferred sufficient legitimacy on decision making, partly as the priorities of the management team changed and partly because of the increased scale of responsibility delegated to a small and inexperienced organisation. Mr Daffarn wrote to project managers and the KCTMO that the planned closure of a car park for work on the tower would make the problem worse. WebKensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation. Residents of other blocks run by Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation raise concerns about the safety of their buildings. /F9 13 0 R Lee Chapman said he had repeatedly been refused an independent fire assessment of the building by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) in spring 2017. << /Parent 2 0 R Home News. endobj When it became an ALMO in 2002, the government was at first insisting on its losing its tenant majority on the board. Under its long-term public remit it had developed a suitably established system for managing properties, employing dedicated individuals with a clear understanding of their roles, with little scope for compromising on safety and largely free of political influence. 8 0 obj << Available at:https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/housing-after-grenfell/blog/2019/11/grenfell-tower-fire-breach-right-life (Accessed [date]). KCTMO was set-up as a means of escaping the threat of the (Conservative) governments Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) regime in 1996. /XObject << However the facts in her account are not fully correct. << How are we going to get down if there is a fire? He added that he was worried because the window-sills were plastic and in a fire could produce toxic fumes. /MediaBox [0.0 0.0 595.2 857.28] The Kensington and Chelsea borough-wide TMO, formed in the 1990s, is known by tenants locally around Grenfell Tower as a fake TMO. They believe the stay put policy places lives at risk. It did not comment on the Chalcot Estate. It is nevertheless understood that fires are statistically calculable occurrences and the extent of the fire that followed the initial source and the difficulty in accessing the building and saving lives can be attributed to failures to properly manage the safety of the building. Grenfell Towers landlords appeared to have a reactive approach to maintenance dating back to a report in 2013, a public inquiry has heard. Residents at high rise flats managed by the organisation that ran Grenfell Tower have spoken of their concerns over their safety after Wednesdays catastrophic fire. It was also the result of decades of deregulation in the housing sector. (modern). /Im49 35 0 R These breakdowns relate to a wide variety of governance failure sources, not least due to the tenant management organisations focus on a series of cost reductions rather than more precautionary measures, a lack of engagement or apparent concern with other stakeholder groups, and decision making by the local council likely to be motivated by negative racial and social class stereotypes about tenants. It is shocking if, as has been reported, this board then refused to listen to the concerns raised by Grenfell residents, or give them an independent fire safety inspection as they requested. On that occasion I went out on to my balcony, but there was thick smoke there. In most cases, effective governance and management require a governance framework as a tool for providing structure for delivering appropriate decision making and oversight. On the night of the fire, Mr Chapmans wife Dr Naomi Li was one of the last people to escape the building alive. /Contents 8 0 R We use cookies on this site to understand how you use our content, and to give you the best browsing experience. OToole also said the stay put policy directing residents to stay in their flats if there is a fire in another part of the building conflicted with the advice on posters on the walls on each floor directing residents to go to the nearest exit. Shirley Phillips, 72, who lives on the second floor in a neighbouring block, said: I am worried, but is worrying going to help? She had read on Facebook that one of the tenants wants everyone to rally around and call for the cladding to be removed. People need action to restore normal conditions on the estate and rebuild trust. Your life is too precious to stay put. Mr Daffarn fought a campaign against the KCTMO which had been set up as an "arm's length" organisation to manage council property on behalf of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Contact. /Count 5 /F8 11 0 R To accept cookies, click continue. The TMO has a board comprising eight residents, four council-appointed members and three independent members. More sensible was the arrangement we had in Ladywood, of an elected Ladywood Housing Liaison Board of twelve-or-so tenants (and ONLY tenants), handling just the few hundred properties in our locality. The ECHR must be interpreted in the light of its object and purpose. He showed new notices stuck up in the hallways after last Octobers fire stating: There is a stay put policy for residents unless the fire is in it affecting your flat.. /Contents 37 0 R The windows blew, flames were jumping out the window and there was some damage to the concrete, but the cladding and the insulation held, he said. /F6 21 0 R The justification for the doctrine of effectiveness is that member states cannot protect Convention rights simply by inactivity but under certain circumstances are required to undertake positive actions to protect rights, even if this requires expenditure. A tolerance was set for fire performance on the project and both products were within that range, the Guardian understands, but the aluminium panels were considered more combustible. The fire speaks to the failure of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, one of the wealthiest boroughs in the country, to adequately regulate social housing. /CropBox [0.0 0.0 595.2 857.28] /F2 17 0 R The lessons of Grenfell resonate across the entire social housing world. My point is this: it is a serious and dangerous error to draw the lesson that KCTMO was not really a TMO.. I stopped paying my rent in protest because my windows were falling off. They must have complied with the law, he said. Kensington and Chelsea council has said it will cooperate with any investigation into the fire. Setting up KCTMO allowed tenants to take on responsibility for housing management, but the scale of responsibility was immense and contentious. Such failures were not a new phenomenon but part of a pattern of governance failure in similar organisational structures. Required fields are marked *. /Im31 26 0 R The Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, Lecturer in Law, Oxford Brookes University, The Grenfell Tower Fire as a Breach of the Right to Life. This changed in 1995 when Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) was established to manage 10,000 local council properties. Date: 6 June 2018. /Parent 2 0 R The TMO continues to exist as an independent corporate entity and the board will continue to be accountable to its members. /Xi12 39 0 R Witness: Kensington and Chelsea A good article but it misses out that the Lancaster West Estate had their own TMO (an EMB) from 1993 until the larger organisation (KCTMO) closed them down in 2013. It was impossible to go out because of the smoke, they said. The Grenfell Tower formed one part of the Lancaster West Estate envisioned in the 1960s and completed in the 1970s (MacLeod, 2018, p.467). The document says there were issues which needed attention regarding planned maintenance. Police said they were considering manslaughter charges in relation to the fire as they revealed that the cladding tiles at the building had failed safety tests. > View this hearing. I have been asking for two years for those to be changed, and nothing has happened, he said. A blog entry posted on 20 November 2016[13] described KCTMO as "an evil, unprincipled, mini-mafia" and predicted that only a "catastrophic event" leading to "serious loss of life" such as "a serious fire in a tower block" would result in change. Extending limitation periods in the Defective Premises Act 1972: a breach of Article 1 of Protocol No. I was woken that day by the smell of burning, he said. [14] At a meeting in January 2016, the residents association presented the findings of a survey which found that 68% of residents had felt harassed or intimidated by the KCTMO or its contractors, and that 90% were dissatisfied with the manner in which improvement works had been carried out. /F7 9 0 R The KCTMO tenant involvement failure as I see it was a matter of the numbers. 1 0 obj