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Grenfell Tower fire in North Kensington - news and discussion

Peter Apps of Inside Housing wrote a short piece about was was learned in Module 2. It's in the Spectator which is probably not high on the list of people's go to publications so here's a copy someone else has archived.

Apps has also had sight of the draft programme for Module 3 and posted some details to twitter.

Some dates for the diary for those following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. Understand residents will give evidence in the first week back on April 19. RBKC's director of housing Laura Johnson begins in w/c 4 May. Former cabinet member for housing Rock Fielding-Mellen w/c 11 May. Former council leader Nicholas Paget Brown and TMO head of safety Janice Wray in w/c 17 May. Risk assessor Carl Stokes in w/c 24 May and full week of 1 June. Former TMO chief exec Robert Black in w/c 14 June (inquiry not sitting on anniversary).
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Module due to run through to 26 July, when we will hear closing statements for the evidence of the entire three modules so far, going back to January 2020. Dates above provisional and just some highlights. Including experts there are 56 witnesses in total.
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Apps throwing more meat into the grinder. Absolute shitshow :mad:

www.insidehousing.co.uk

Grenfell Tower Inquiry diary week 31: ‘If we cannot get out, people will die’

A trusted source of up-to-date news for social housing professionals – the only place to get comprehensive coverage of all the big topics.
www.insidehousing.co.uk www.insidehousing.co.uk

...In 2009, independent auditor Maria Memoli published a damning report which found evidence of board members abusing their positions and tenants waiting years for leaks to be fixed...“I thought that the complaints procedure was a way for the TMO to be judge, jury and executioner,” he said. “It essentially let them judge themselves. Their strategy was to refer me to the complaints procedure and exhaust [Grenfell Tower Leaseholders Association]”...residents with mobility issues being told of how they were trapped in the building by both lifts going out of service around once a month...hot water and sometimes even drinking water being cut off at the tower and KCTMO failing to provide bottled water...described “mould and mushrooms” growing in her kitchen following a leak and silverfish coming in through the windows...leak became so bad that the floor of her bathroom was ruined, and when a workman attended he broke her toilet and removed an expensive rug...

...Seven years before the tragedy of June 2017, there was a serious fire on the sixth floor which saw smoke spread all the way up to the 15th floor, leaving three residents injured...serious defect: the smoke ventilation system was broken with improper seals, meaning it spread smoke around the building rather than remove it...“catastrophic failure”...nothing was done until it was upgraded during the refurbishment in 2016...he was threatened with the forfeiture of his lease and that RBKC and KCTMO “always seemed to want to ignore the existence of GTLA”...

...GTLA raised issues such as the communal heating system, which was unreliable and generated huge service charge bills, and difficulty cleaning windows...questioned the appointment of Studio E as architects...asking if the architects “have experience with tower blocks and if not why are we using them?”...this was Studio E’s first high-rise job and that they were appointed without proper checks...a belief by KCTMO and RBKC that residents should not be consulted about technical matters and that anything they did say would be irrelevant”...

...Residents were also seriously worried about a series of power surges in 2013. These were described by Mr Ahmed as: “The lights would flicker, computers turned on and off, and electrical equipment exploded. This was very alarming, as it could happen at any time without warning. It became increasingly frightening as my appliances emitted smoke and I realised that there was a serious risk of an electrical fire”...numerous complaints about the surges, which had destroyed his computer, washing machine, fridge and other appliances and affected every floor from 10 up...KCTMO denied liability and refused to offer compensation...residents “were never given a proper explanation about the reasons for the power surges or what had been done to ensure they were not repeated”...anger over the refurbishment work was mounting...lifts were regularly being taken out of service by contractors, there was noise and dust and anger at the way residents were being treated...

...anger within the tower mounted due to the sudden decision to shift ‘heating interface units’ into front corridors...a stand-off, with residents refusing access to their flats and some being threatened with breach of tenancy...the residents were able to persuade KCTMO and Rydon to switch back to the original plan...problems with their front doors, which had been replaced in a major works programme in the early 2010s...the self-closers would often break or jam the door open...broken door closers...her door jammed shortly after it was replaced and would not close...The person that did the work told me it was not an issue and that it was ‘causing complications’”...no one from KCTMO had explained the importance of a self-closer to her and that no one had inspected the door following the work to ensure it was safe...a KCTMO staff member had disconnected his self-closer...her door never self-closed and that she raised this with two firefighters who visited the building just four days before the fire...lack of self-closers is believed to have been a major contributor to the internal spread of smoke during the fire – as panicked residents fled, the doors did not swing shut behind them and smoke spread to the lobbies and then the stairs...
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:mad: :mad: :mad:
 
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Pete Apps managed to limit himself to just one paywalled link in the diary article this week :) It's to this from last December:
Government watered down implementation of Grenfell recommendations for disabled people after push from lobbyists (archived - none of the links from it are however)

The BBC have had two podcasts this week. [BBC Podcast page]. The first was a special about Race and Class at Grenfell. Transcript of it here. (Transcript of the second 'regular' podcast is 'in process').

Very interesting week. Monday heard evidence from a former secretary of the Grenfell Tower Leaseholders Association, and the former sub-tenant of a leaseheld flat who was involved in Grenfell Unite and the Grenfell Compact before the fire. On Tuesday four former tenants gave evidence in person and extracts from the witness statements of eleven others were read into the record. On Wednesday Ed Daffarn of the Grenfell Unite/Compact/Grenfell Action Group blog gave evidence all day. On Thursday morning, before the first two witnesses from the 'TMO', there was a presentation of the evidence from Shah Ahmed who is unable to give it in person. Ahmed founded the Towers leaseholders association in 2010 after a previous small fire in which his wife had been injured. He also preserved documentation of the complaints made and responses received to them. Much of such documentation held by other residents was of course lost in the fire. For those who want them links to the official transcripts for the four days and an index of their contents here.
 
Transcript of the regular BBC podcast for this week here. Podcasts obviously don't have to be a specific length to fit into a broadcast slot. This is one of the longer ones they've produced, reflecting the number of issues covered this week. (Since we're on a new page of this thread a reminder that previous phase 2 podcast transcripts can be found here, and previous Inside Housing Grenfell diaries here).

Coming up this week more former 'TMO' staff, including the return of refurbishment manager Claire Williams on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by the TMO's former director of assets and regeneration Peter Maddison.
 
Lurdan said:
Coming up this week more former 'TMO' staff, including the return of refurbishment manager Claire Williams
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And she is as anyone might expect:

"There was never any comment about the good work we were doing in terms of employment initiatives, all the things we did for residents – they were just overlooked,” she said.
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That's her complaining about the tenant group blog which had consistently raised concerns over, inter alia, fire safety, and which was blocked from its staff's computers by the TMO.

www.theguardian.com

Grenfell Tower landlord ‘blocked staff access to residents’ blog’

KCTMO censored blog by Grenfell Action Group which warned of a potentially disastrous fire, inquiry hears
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
It's so clearly unjust that even though it's the Tories I'm still surprised. The government let their building control regime fall apart, the government should pick up the bill. If they want cladding companies to pay up to cover some of the costs then fine, they should make that happen. The idea that leaseholders should be the ones footing the bills is a joke. In what way was it their fault? Hopefully the Tories just lost a bunch of voters.
 
Brainaddict said:
It's so clearly unjust that even though it's the Tories I'm still surprised. The government let their building control regime fall apart, the government should pick up the bill. If they want cladding companies to pay up to cover some of the costs then fine, they should make that happen. The idea that leaseholders should be the ones footing the bills is a joke. In what way was it their fault? Hopefully the Tories just lost a bunch of voters.
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I doubt much of their voter base live in cladded flats.
 
The key thing here is that they've done the maths and decided that the banks can eat any losses arising from insolvency or foreclosure. What happens to the actual people involved is not even a factor. Protect the banks and all the financial pyramid schemes balanced on top of the property market, fuck everything else.
 
SpookyFrank said:
The key thing here is that they've done the maths and decided that the banks can eat any losses arising from insolvency or foreclosure. What happens to the actual people involved is not even a factor. Protect the banks and all the financial pyramid schemes balanced on top of the property market, fuck everything else.
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Fire sale (ha!) on unmortgageable properties from people forced to sell because their flat is worth less than whatever the outstanding debt on it is. Mass buy-up of said flats for cash by management companies/private equity as an investment opportunity. All of a sudden replacing the cladding doesn't cost £10,000 per flat for the firms holding majority stakes in the flats in the building (but the leaseholders hanging on by their fingernails still have to pay it). Flats minus the Ronson cladding either back on the market ("hey, we get to sell it twice!") or rented back at the same cost as before. Trebles all 'round.
 
I note that this latest fuckery is being reported as 'MPs vote to make flat owners pay for safety defects' and not some watered down or equivocal version of that.

Elsewhere you've got people in new builds forced to sign NDA's just to get their homes brought up to building regs standard by the developers. If these cunts aren't reined in now, and the building control system made fit for purpose then the cost in money and human lives will continue to spiral.
 
SpookyFrank said:
I note that this latest fuckery is being reported as 'MPs vote to make flat owners pay for safety defects' and not some watered down or equivocal version of that.

Elsewhere you've got people in new builds forced to sign NDA's just to get their homes brought up to building regs standard by the developers. If these cunts aren't reined in now, and the building control system made fit for purpose then the cost in money and human lives will continue to spiral.
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I briefly "liked" this but that's the wrong response.

Fucking depressing tbh. From this to all the corruption and the outright lies and what happens? Literally nothing. There is no accountability, none at all.

E2A: and is the Torygraph reporting that way? Bet it isn't
 
This weeks Inside Housing Grenfell Diary (archived)
Grenfell Tower Inquiry diary week 32: ‘Let’s hope our luck holds out and there are no fires in the meantime’
(links from it all archived, and with one exception a couple of levels down, so are the subsequent links)

For anyone who want's their daily reports:
21.04.27 - KCTMO failed to tell Grenfell residents smoke ventilation system broken ‘beyond repair’
21.04.28 - KCTMO decided to ‘not disclose’ fire risk assessment backlog to fire brigade
21.04.29 - RBKC decided against fire door inspection programme months before Grenfell fire

Couple of gems from Claire Williams the refurbishment manager for the 'TMO'.

Richard Millett: Coming back to a question I have asked now quite a few times today: why were the residents not informed that there was an elevated level of risk while the work was being carried out on the smoke ventilation system?

Claire Williams: I’ve said that I don’t remember, I don’t remember ever discussing it with anybody in terms of why we didn’t say to residents. I don’t remember anybody ever saying, "Let's put it in the newsletter". It wasn’t discussed and I don't remember raising it as an issue.
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(...)
Richard Millett: Now, as I've shown you, you said in paragraph 238: "This appeared to be a comprehensive assessment of all fire safety issues and he further reported on the provisions for means of escape."
I just want to explore with you the statement that it appeared to be a comprehensive fire risk assessment of all fire safety issues. Can you please go back to the fire risk assessment, at page 18. On that page, you can see that there’s a section called "Pest control”. Do you see that?

Claire Williams: Yes.

Richard Millett: (Quoting Carl Stokes Fire Safety Report) "Is there suitable control of any pest infestations?” Tick. "Comments or observations."
If you pick it up halfway down the box underneath it, it says this:
"Where pigeon netting has been erected to cover the flat balconies, from a visual inspection from the ground there appeared to be no areas where this pigeon netting was damaged and it appeared to be well fitted, at the time of this assessment. There was no access to each flat balcony as these are private areas but the pigeon netting where fitted, is only covering the balcony opening, it is therefore not obstructing any doors from the flat onto the external balcony area.”
Do you recall reading that section at the time?

Claire Williams: (sounding suprised) No, I don't.

Richard Millett: Why didn’t you read that? Did you not read the whole report?

Claire Williams: As I say, I would have cast my eye over it but I would have looked more at the areas with my name against. But I can see this is a cut and paste report from that comment.

Richard Millett: Just to be clear, Grenfell Tower had no flat balconies and no pigeon netting, well fitted or otherwise, did it?

Claire Williams: No, it had no balconies.

Richard Millett: No. Did you pick up the fact that Mr Stokes had included a passage in his report that had nothing whatever to do with Grenfell Tower?

Claire Williams: No, I didn't.

Richard Millett: How could you have thought that it was a comprehensive assessment of all fire safety issues if it included material that was irrelevant to the building?

Claire Williams: I would have looked at the headings, I would have thought, "Oh, that’s interesting", because I didn't know what they covered, so it was quite interesting to see all of that.

Richard Millett: Did you notice at the time that Mr Stokes had clearly cut and pasted this from somewhere else?

Claire Williams: No. Now you've-------that paragraph is the first time I've seen-----

Richard Millett: Right.

Claire Williams: -----that.

Richard Millett: To your knowledge----I take it the answer to this must be yes---no one else at the TMO noticed either?

Claire Williams: I can't speak for other people, I'm afraid.
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Transcript of the BBC podcast for last week here.
Richard Millett: You see, isn’t there a problem here? Let me spell it out to you. If you had a fire risk assessor who was prepared to do what you asked him in matters of judgement of risk, how could you trust his risk assessments at all?
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Tomorrow Peter Maddison of the 'TMO' continues to give evidence. He's followed by one of the Inquiry's expert witnesses, Jonathan Sakula, who I understand has produced a report into the state of knowledge within the cladding industry during the period January 2012 to June 2017. Then it's another witness from the 'TMO'.
 
Transcript of the BBC podcast for last week here.

Tomorrow Sacha Jevans, the 'TMO's former director of operations gives evidence, then on Tuesday the first of several days of evidence from Laura Johnson, the Council's former director of housing.
 
This weeks Inside Housing Grenfell Diary (archived):
Grenfell Tower Inquiry diary week 34: ‘Some members of the community are doing their best to spread false information’

Once again the diary contains just one paywalled link however this week that page and most of the subsequent links it leads to are also archived.

For anyone who wants the daily reports Inside Housing put up this week
21.05.10 - RBKC 'said no' to fire brigade call for safety improvements before Grenfell 'due to budget'
21.05.11 - Council housing boss requested tenancy status check on Grenfell resident after they raised concerns
21.05.12 - RBKC housing head failed to check if fire service concerns over Grenfell had been fixed before fire
21.05.13 - Grenfell council housing head ignored recommendations from Lakanal Fire coroner’s report
 
Lurdan said:
This weeks Inside Housing Grenfell Diary (archived):
Grenfell Tower Inquiry diary week 34: ‘Some members of the community are doing their best to spread false information’

Once again the diary contains just one paywalled link however this week that page and most of the subsequent links it leads to are also archived.

For anyone who wants the daily reports Inside Housing put up this week
21.05.10 - RBKC 'said no' to fire brigade call for safety improvements before Grenfell 'due to budget'
21.05.11 - Council housing boss requested tenancy status check on Grenfell resident after they raised concerns
21.05.12 - RBKC housing head failed to check if fire service concerns over Grenfell had been fixed before fire
21.05.13 - Grenfell council housing head ignored recommendations from Lakanal Fire coroner’s report
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Thanks Lurdan .

Not Grenfell but we've heard this contempt for residents viewpoints and welfare somewhere before haven't we

'They told us not to attend meetings drunk' - tenants' anger at council insult 'They told us not to attend meetings drunk' - tenants' anger at council insult
 
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