Grenfell Tower The Aftermath Thread SIX.

[HelenaDove]

I thought i would take the oppurtunity to start thread six as thread five is now coming to an end. to all those lost in the fire their survivors families friends and volunteers.

Link to thread five which also includes links to previous threads.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/2959251-London-Fire-Grenfell-Tower-thread-five?pg=1

www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/news/havering-council-tenants-report-to-ombudsman-1-6383664?fbclid=IwAR2I9CxUOlE7kAPHgPyGuJkzsRGFPXRWtAO8D8onrpDM_5GwqnQWZ6Bp-vo

A family is planning to take legal action against Havering Council after three years of misery in a home contractors said was up to scratch.

Retired bailiff Paul Lewis, 52, daughter Sophie and her three-year-old son moved into the house in Hilldene Avenue in September 2016

An inspection in the summer had given the council property a clean bill of health after basic renovations costing £6,700.

But from their first night, the tenants said, a series of nightmares - from chronic leaks to mould to rats, and the recent discovery of asbestos in the roof - have blighted their lives and led to further repair works costing tens of thousands to the taxpayer.

Mr Lewis, who is disabled and cared for full-time by his daughter, said: "We told them we've had enough of this place. We can't go on living like this

"This was meant to be my last home but it hasn't worked out. Instead they're digging their heels in, my grandson is caged up like an animal in the summer and we're running alive with rats."

In June 2016 an operative for Harold Hill-based contractor the Breyer Group inspected the empty property and found no issues with the plumbing or electrics.

Breyer was awarded a £35million contract in 2014 for repairs and void works in Havering's 10,000 homes.

The move was controversial at the time as the firm's last contract with Southwark Council had been terminated over a "life-threatening incident

The contract expired in March 2019 but has been extended until 2021, at a rough cost of £3.3m a year, before Havering begins re-procurement.

On the night the family moved in, the upstairs flooded as the radiators turned out to only be gaffa-taped to the walls.

Mr Lewis said, "An emergency plumber came out and said 'How the hell have they signed this place off?'."

Black mould that had been "washed down" for £8.82 in the summer was already re-growing and rainwater seeped through the ceilings from a a leak in the roof. The leaks, the family said, "destroyed everything we had

Builders were drafted in in October 2017 to replace the old tiles and rip down the chimney stack, which it emerged was on the brink of collapse.

The electrics cabinet was out of date and pronounced "unsatisfactory" in a later inspection, while wiring in the ceiling roses were not earthed: a possible fire hazard.

In mid-2017 the family reported concerns about rats and mice to the council. The garden was baited but huge rats have been found scuttling across the garden and in the kitchen cupboards, and are now thought to be living in the cavity walls.

Sophie Lewis, a former NHS secretary, told the Recorder: "My son wakes up screaming 'The rats are going to bite me, mummy'.

We lost our whole summer; we couldn't have the back doors open. How do you explain to a three-year-old that he can't go outside and play?".

Mr Lewis's floor had to be torn up after birds found their way in through a hole left open in the wall

The bathroom - which the council paid £2,700 to be brought up to "decent homes standard" in 2016 - has now been ripped out and replaced three times

n spring 2019, contractors investigating the rats in the loft made another discovery: a full sheet of chrysotile asbestos, somehow not flagged up by roofers in 2017.

One thing the Breyer operative had flagged up in summer 2016 was the need for an asbestos survey.

And throughout the roof works in 2017 dust from that part of the house had been flooding the living room.

The family, two of whom have asthma, were told that they would be moved as a matter of urgency. But then the council said it was safe for them to stay as long as the material was not "disturbed" - although the sheet was already broken

The family complained to Havering Council and the Housing Ombudsman. In June 2019, a member of Havering's complaints team upheld it, saying: "I have seen evidence of service failure and evidence procedures have not been followed."

They also apologised "for the failure in services provided to you dating back to the start of your tenancy."

But in a letter to Julia Lopez MP in August, the council's interim head of housing, Bernadette Marjoram, wrote that to date all repairs issues in the property were caused by "wear and tear", adding: "The correct processes were followed at the time."

The family have said that once re-housed, they will be seeking compensation for the council for the thousands they have paid on independent expert help.

Mr Lewis said one sub-contractor alone told him they had made more than £60,000 from work since they moved in

He said: "A few months ago they knew we didn't want to be around anymore and fudged it internally, and they still haven't dealt with the problems. I can't carry on living like this. They owe me compensation for everything we've been through."

Analysis by homelessness charity Shelter this year found that one in 10 social housing tenants had reported an issue with their home more than 10 times.

Some 56 per cent of tenants surveyed in the UK had experienced a problem - from electrical hazards to gas leaks to faulty lifts - in the past three years

The charity has backed calls from campaign group Grenfell United for a new regulator for social housing. Chief executive Polly Neate said:

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: "Tinkering with the current system just isn't good enough when people have lost trust in it to keep them safe."

The Breyer Group did not respond to a request for comment and Havering Council did not initially respond.

However, upon publication of this article, a Havering Council spokesman did then respond, describing Mr Lewis' case as "very complex" and claiming that the issues highlighted in our reporting of his living conditions "do not tell the whole story".

The spokesman added: "We have done and continue to do everything we can to resolve certain problems at the property. We are also supporting the tenants in finding a new home where we hope they will be happier.

Update on the goings on in Toryglen which is upthread. They have a blog too.

eIenaDove Mon 02-Dec-19 23:27:16
www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/17862242.scandal-thistle-housing-association-toryglen/?ref=twtrec

Evening TimesThe scandal of housing association in Toryglen - and the residents who unmasked it

al of housing association in Toryglen - and the residents who unmasked it

13 comments

IN my time at the Evening Times I've come across a lot of angry people who want their stories told in the paper to try to mobile the authorities into some kind of action.

Fury can sometimes lead to people exaggerating issues or embellishing the truth a little bit. When Ian Paterson and David Crockwell first invited me out to Toryglen to see the work being carried out by E-on and Thistle Housing Association, the story sounded a little far fetched.

A 14-week energy upgrade programme running 191 days late? Raw sewage coming in to people's homes?
Faulty rough casting, scaffolding blocking the main doors of resident's flats, blue plastic covering the windows of people's homes and leaving them literally in the dark for five months?

Surely no tradesmen could make so many errors and no site foreman could allow all this to be happening on such a grand scale?

A walk round the area showed fault after fault with the so-called upgrade works to these homes.

And how many homes were affected? Well, around 600
Even at this point - February 2017 - this was a scandal. As Ian and David walked round the community with the photographer and I, people were coming out of their homes to talk to me about their stories. It's usually a case of knocking doors and persuading people to talk but by the end of the visit I had more stories than I could possibly use.

A woman in a wheelchair who was trapped in her home by the scaffolding blocking her front door.

Another woman who said a heavy piece of masonry fell from scaffolding above and smashed through the decking of her patio. She was just grateful she hadn't been sitting outdoors at the time.

A man who came home to find two workmen having a stand up fight in his front garden, necessitating a call to the police. A couple whose home needed roughcasting four times before it was to a decent standard.

At the same home repairs had to be made when the flue from their boiler was sealed in by workmen, causing a potential hazard.

And this all using public money, cash from Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government.

One month after the initial story appeared, E-on admitted it had "let the residents of Toryglen down".

The energy firm said it was renowned for its award-winning work in delivering these type of energy upgrade projects and pledged to have the work done as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, it was nigh-on impossible to get Thistle HA on the phone... until the association hired a PR team to deal with press enquiries. We're now nearly two-and-a-half years on from that initial story and I'm still writing about Thistle Housing Association

And the reason I'm still writing about Thistle HA is down to the dogged determination of Ian and David.

They have phoned up with some pretty outlandish claims in the past two years - the chimneys are all unsound? But that would be dangerous, surely that would be dealt with immediately? And then two chimney coping stones fell from roofs.

Thistle HA knows about asbestos in the roof spaces of the flats? And isn't dealing with it effectively? Surely not.

Ah, and now the Health & Safety Executive is dealing with asbestos issues at the flats.

No matter what the two men have claimed is happening with housing bosses in their community, they've turned out to be correct
Last year the Scottish Housing Regulator began an investigation into Thistle HA and the results were damning. Additional staff were parachuted in to help support the housing association to improve.

One year on and a follow up report last week by the watchdog raises even more serious concerns. It remains to be seen what will happen next. It would be an amazing feat if the association can repair the damage done in its relationship with its residents.

And does the association have the skills it needs to repair what is a serious raft of failings? Or will it ultimately be best to transfer its assets over to a larger body, such as GHA

Residents are fed up waiting. But what is also important is to acknowledge the work of local champions. Without people like Ian and David, people willing to stick their heads above the parapet and to keep pushing for what they know is right, it's unlikely any of this would have been made public.

So here's to local champions. And here's hoping residents have the answers they need and the work on their homes properly completed as soon as possible

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/03/fires-grenfell-towers-combustible-cladding?fbclid=IwAR2uHUG_oUjKEAPmtWCbkB8bRoBphOHSS_TvnQnpVWZ3ys2LA8L39HQxWsg

There will be more fires like Grenfell, and lives will be lost
Sandra Ruiz
Warnings before the tragedy were ignored. Two years on, a lack of action means thousands still live in towers with combustible cladding

• Sandra Ruiz is a member of the Grenfell United action group

The smell was the same – that acrid, burning smell. As we walked towards the burnt-out wreckage of The Cube in Bolton, it took me straight back to Grenfell Tower the morning after the fire that killed my niece and 71 others.

To avoid blazes like Bolton's, we must radically overhaul student housing
Eva Crossan Jory
Read more
Two and a half years since Grenfell, it is a silent scandal how little has changed. The images of the cladding crackling and dripping from the Bolton student block is a shameful reminder that thousands of homes are still not safe. There have been eight significant residential fires since Grenfell. And today tens of thousands of people are still living in buildings wrapped in dangerous combustible materials. It’s on our homes, our hospitals, our care homes and our schools.

It still keeps me awake at night worrying that what happened to my family could happen to another. That’s why Grenfell United, the pressure group for survivors and the bereaved, has written a letter to party leaders that we never wanted to write. We have told them that unless action is taken it is our firm belief that a serious fire in the UK will occur in a building wrapped in combustible materials, leading to loss of life.

Edward Daffarn, also a Grenfell United member, made a similarly stark warning on his co-authored Grenfell Action blog six months before the fire. It was not listened to. This time I pray our words will not be ignored.

We are still fighting the indifference that led to the Grenfell tragedy For the past two years we’ve heard from successive government ministers that local authorities should step in, or building owners or developers. All this means is that little gets done, and that residents remain living in fear
The truth is that residents are in far greater danger than the government has wanted to admit. It’s not just about the type of cladding that was on Grenfell: other types are dangerous too. Focus has been on buildings over 18 metres high, but that height is arbitrary. The Cube was just under 18 metres. Addressing the problem starts with being honest about how many buildings are affected, and so far the government hasn’t even been able to do that.

But there is a way forward. Residents’ groups, including UK Cladding Action Group and Manchester Cladiators, point to lessons from Australia. When there was a cladding fire in Melbourne, the government took control, set up a national taskforce, prioritised every building at risk, and has even brought in a new development levy so the construction industry bears some of the costs. None of these things have happened in Britain.

If the government’s main job is to keep citizens safe, taking responsibility for the cladding scandal must be top of the list. That another Grenfell could happen under the next government should keep any prime minister awake at night.

We were made many promises in the aftermath of Grenfell. The most important promise is that we will see justice. Seeing the Hillsborough families devastatingly let down by the criminal justice system last week, we are all too aware of the long journey to justice ahead of us and the flawed system we face. The Hillsborough families have fought with incredible dignity, courage and determination for more than three decades. We walk in their footsteps.

Justice for Grenfell can come in three ways: through the inquiry seeking the truth; through the criminal prosecutions seeking charges; or through change led by the government. We have already waited for two and a half years with countless undelivered promises. It’s time for justice to start

A new government must lead the change. There are many wrongs to right from Grenfell but they all start with listening to residents and making sure warnings are not ignored. It means ending this culture of indifference and complacency

Next year my twin girls will apply to university. When I pack them off, I want to know they will be safe in their halls. I want to know that people across the country are safe – because residents have been listened to and our warnings heeded. I want to know I will never again smell the acrid burning of toxic materials.

We owe it to the 72 people who died in the Grenfell fire to make sure it never happens again.

• Sandra Ruiz is a member of the Grenfell United action group

www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/crime-court/offshore-fund-rakes-in-9million-from-islington-s-outsourced-housing-deals-1-6398460?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social_Icon&utm_campaign=in_article_social_icons

Exclusive
£9million of taxpayers' money went to 'offshore tax haven' through Islington Council's out-sourced housing deals

John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF) was registered in Guernsey and owned 45 per cent of two Public Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deals between Islington Council and Partners for Improvement in Islington.

The now defunct investment fund company was based on the island where companies generally pay tax at 0pc - and it owned 45pc of both the Islington PFI 1 and PFI 2 contracts, as of 2012.

The council has two concurrent contracts with Partners for Improvement in Islington, outsourcing 6,440 council homes for letting and management.

Partners was owned by a private sector consortium originally comprised of Bank of Scotland, United House Group and Hyde Housing Association, with Rydon Property Maintenance providing repairs and cyclical maintenance.

But in January 2012, JLIF brought into three PFI contracts from United House for £30.5m, which also gave the firm a 50pc stake in the Partners' Camden PFI project, pertaining to the redevelopment of the Chalcots Estate. But Partners for Camden filed for insolvency in 2018.

PFI 1 had post-tax profit of £6.8m between 2009 and 2018 and paid dividends of £6.6m.

Over the same period, PFI 2 created post-tax profits of £23.3m and paid dividends of £14.9m.

Dexter Whitfield - a specialist in PFI schemes at the European Services Strategy Unit and an associate professor at Flinders University in Australia - calculates that between 2012 and March 2018 £9.56m was paid in dividends to JLIF in Guernsey, with the remaining £11m going to UK-based shareholders

of shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry. Picture: PA Images / Kirsty O'Connor
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry told the Gazette: "Unfortunately, our borough is still paying the price for the period when the Lib Dems were in charge of the council, doing all sorts of bad deals with private contractors and investors.

"It may be impossible to unwind these particular PFI deals, but it is not right that taxpayers' money is ending up in offshore tax havens. The way we deal with that is by electing a Labour government which will get serious about cracking down on those tax havens, and ensuring that companies making profits in this country are paying tax in this country."

Between 2012 and 2018, JLIF which invested in 65 PFI and Public Private Partnership schemes around the world, had pre-tax profits of £526.1m but paid only paid £2.1m (or 0.4pc) in UK tax. Academic and housing campaigner Stuart Hodkinson, whose 2019 work Safe As Houses scrutinies the "corporate greed" of PFI schemes, estimates the total contract value of PFI 1 is £357m, while PFI 2 is said to be worth £421.3m.

Dr Brian Potter, chair of Islington Leaseholders Association, led a campaign to stop the PFI deals in the early 2000s. He argues offshore or tax haven registered companies profiting from PFI deals, while not illegal, is "unethical" and "insidious". He said: "This is one of the major problems with selling off contacts. Once you have sold the contract you have no control, so there is no quality control - nobody accepts responsibility for anything wrong with the original contract. You're just left with a money spinning machine just eating money over the years. It was the worst council financing decision

Islington expects to pay Partners £44million this year, £44.9m in 2020-2021 and £45.9m in 2021-22.

Both Islington PFIs pay UK corporation tax on their profits before dividends are paid out. PFI 1 and PFI 2 paid a combined £7.4m in tax on their profits between 2012 and 2018. But if a shareholder is a company it doesn't pay tax again on its dividend income, which is then paid out again in kind to its immediate parent company and the money gradually moves offshore, in this instance to Guernsey.

PFI 1 covered 2,340 homes in Highbury, Mildmay and Canonbury - it started in 2003 and is a 30 year contract. PFI 2, a 16 year deal, covers 4,100 homes across the borough and runs out in three years. Following Shadow chancellor exchequer John McDonnell's threat to nationalise PFI and PPP schemes under a Labour Government in 2017 - JLIF shares plummeted, and it was bought by Dalmore Capital Ltd and Equinox for £1.45bn and renamed the fund Jura Holdings Ltd. Equinox is owned by Tetragon Financial Group, registered in Guernsey. But the latest Labour Party Manifesto has softened its stance on nationalisation of PFI - it says "taking back all PFI contracts over time"; which could mean doing nothing and letting contracts conclude and local authorities and NHS trusts takeover responsibility.

The Gazette was unable to get a comment from JLIF as it no longer exists. Its previous parent company John Laing PLC said it was a separately listed fund and had its own board and chairman.

Partners declined to comment

End the PFI rip off'

Islington's housing chief Cllr Diarmaid Ward said the council was best placed to comment on this story, but it was unable to do so because of pre-election rules.

But last year Cllr Ward told the Gazette: "We have looked into it [the early termination of the PFI contracts] many times over the years. But it would be really prohibitively expensive to end the contracts early. It would costs millions and millions and it would not be a good deal for residents of Islington. Given that one contract is ending in 2022, we'd rather start making preparations now."

Cllr Ward has previously said the council's "default position" is to bring the services back in-house, subject to consultation with residents.

Islington North veteran Jeremy Corbyn said at the time: "People in Islington contact me regularly about their problems with Partners, which come from the poor contracts the previous Liberal Democrat administration made the grave mistake of signing.

"Unfortunately, until we have a Labour government committed to nationalising existing PFI schemes, the earliest we can terminate the first of these contracts without excessive cost is 2022. Labour will end the PFI rip off and bring services back under public control

www.independent.co.uk/voices/election-tory-grenfrell-tower-fire-boris-johnson-a9242341.html

"Grenfell should have been central to this election, the government’s deficient response to the dozens of lives lost reflects their attitude to many areas of social care.

I lost my cousin Mary Mendy and her daughter Khadija Saye in the Grenfell Tower fire. What followed was a litany of institutional failures by the Conservative government and local council. Instead of grieving our loss, my family have had to fight for justice. The lessons have not been learnt. Potentially dangerous cladding is still on buildings. The Bolton fire at a student tower block last month likely should not have happened.

Rehousing Grenfell residents has been torturously slow and the inquiry is still ongoing, meaning we are without justice or closure. This last few years since the fire have been a living hell. Leading Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg’s callous remarks suggest that residents lacked the common sense to leave the building. My relatives made it to the stairway. If Rees-Mogg had met with us he would know how incorrect, wrong and painful his comments are. My calls on the Conservative Party to remove him as a candidate and for him personally to meet with me to explain himself, have been ignored.

The Conservatives seem more comfortable talking to the media about Grenfell, than talking to people like me who have been deeply affected.

Rees-Mogg has kept a low-profile since his shameful comments. His words give an insight into how I feel my family were treated, as second class citizens. Austerity, social housing and cuts on fire safety impacted with devastating consequences at Grenfell. The Conservative government failed me and my family

This includes Sam Gyimah, who was universities minister until his resignation in November last year, and who later defected to the Liberal Democrats after losing the Conservative whip. He gave assurances that cladding on student tower blocks was being investigated and that steps were being taken. However, the Bolton fire proves otherwise.

If the issues that arise from the Grenfell catastrophe were prioritised during this election, Gyimah, now standing as a Lib Dem candidate in the very London borough where Grenfell happened, would never have been put forward as a candidate in the area.

This is an election like no other. Justice for bereaved families and residents of Grenfell should be front and centre. There are wider lessons relating to austerity and the disregard for disadvantaged communities which meant flammable cladding was, and still is, on tower blocks, which means another Grenfell could happen.

This is why I shudder at the thought of the Conservatives being elected again, given their treatment of me and my family. The Liberal Democrats did not mention either Grenfell or cladding in their manifesto. So neither they or the Conservatives give me confidence. Their record in coalition together and as parties, right up to this election, is woefully inadequate. Labour’s Emma Dent Coad was only in office for less than a week as the local MP when the Grenfell Tower catastrophe happened. She has been a constant ally in my fight for justice in parliament and beyond. This is in contrast to the Conservative-run local council that I have had to personally confront over their failings despite ill health.

The council should have been taken into special measures in the wake of the fire. I believe the council failed to listen to residents before the fire, it was “missing in action” during the fire and it continued to fail them afterwards. The council have not yet consulted with me regarding their recovery strategy or programme, even though I am a bereaved family member and a core participant in the public inquiry

The council also stopped holding Grenfell scrutiny committees which were supposed to keep it accountable to the community After the tragedy, it was exposed for still failing on basic fire safety in social housing in the area. Nine households of former residents affected as of this October, were still without permanent homes more than two years after the catastrophe. The government has failed to retrofit fire sprinklers in tower blocks or remove flammable cladding which is still on buildings. Jeremy Corbyn’s response in the wake of the tragedy was genuine and considerate, in complete contrast to then prime minister Theresa May, who was criticised for not meeting with those who were affected soon enough.

The government’s legacy over Grenfell is characterised by a long list of failures. Unless this changes and the ongoing demands for fire safety are addressed, another fire could happen. Over two years on, I believe only a change of government can make the difference that is so desperately needed"

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/14/grenfell-tory-mp-kensington-tower-tragedy

After Grenfell, a Tory MP for Kensington is a bitter pill
Seraphima Kennedy

It is a bitter pill for the community in Kensington North to swallow. This morning, almost 30 months since the fatal fire at that killed 54 adults and 18 children, the general election returned a Conservative MP, Felicity Buchan, by just 150 votes. Buchan beat the incumbent, Emma Dent-Coad (who was herself elected with only a slim margin of 20 votes back in 2017, just days before the Grenfell Tower fire).

The residents of Kensington, whose council is still under investigation for corporate manslaughter, now have an MP from the party that rejected the recommendations that could have prevented Grenfell. That same party has also failed to get to grips with the scale of the cladding scandal since the fire. If anything, progress is going backwards: thousands remain in unsafe homes, and new figures released today show an increase in the number of tower blocks with Grenfell-style cladding.

Sam Gyimah was parachuted in but ran a tone-deaf campaign, delivering generic leaflets to still traumatised people
It is hard to see how such a candidate could be returned in a borough where 72 people died so recently, after their concerns about the building were repeatedly ignored. Blame for today’s result was levelled at an aggressive campaign by the Liberal Democrats, fielding newly converted Sam Gyimah, who had little to do with either Grenfell or Kensington before the election was called. Gyimah was parachuted in but ran a tone-deaf campaign, delivering generic leaflets to homes in north Kensington still traumatised by the fire and its aftermath
His campaign literature did not reference Grenfell or the long-term recovery plan, leading to strong criticism from residents. Instead, the campaign stuck to issues the Lib Dems thought would appeal to remain voters: Brexit, schools, the NHS. This was not so much an oversight as a catastrophic slap in the face for a community still working to rebuild. Gyimah himself repeated unfounded accusations about Dent-Coad’s role in the refurbishment at Grenfell, leading to an official complaint, and failed to understand the lived experience of the constituents he was trying to win over.
A swing of 9% to the Lib Dems in this strongly remain borough gave Gyimah more than 9,000 votes, splitting the vote. There were cries of “shame” as the results were announced early this morning – a far cry from the jubilant scenes that greeted Dent-Coad’s election in early June 2017, two weeks before the fire. With a Conservative MP now elected, there is significant concern about whether promised change in the borough will be delivered. This is a grave disservice to a community who has worked day and night to rebuild.

Outside of the north of Kensington, Buchan’s election is a devastating blow for families like mine, who rely on local services and have never felt represented in this borough. Overcrowding, lack of truly affordable housing, poor repairs, and cuts to schools, mental health facilities and other services have made many residents feel as though the change promised after Grenfell has not come.

In the summer of 2019, the government’s own Grenfell Independent Taskforce delivered its fourth report into the extent of changes happening at the council. It stated: “There is a strategic failure to present a coherent narrative on recovery and the progress and outcomes that have or will be delivered. This means that it is difficult for us, never mind the bereaved, survivors and wider community, to see whether the council is really delivering or not.” It also commented that some behaviours in public meetings from elected members were “unedifying”. This is the council, this is the culture.

If Buchan wants to last in Kensington, she will need to quickly familiarise herself with the commitments already given by council leaders, study the work set out in the Independent Taskforce reports, and deliver on promised change. The government itself has immediate work to do: it needs to get a grip on the remediation programme, make homes safe, and deliver on the recommendations in the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 1 report. Otherwise, the odds seem stacked against a community that has poured so much energy into the rebuild effort.

The residents of north Kensington need justice for their community. The bereaved and survivors continue to campaign for better services. They were ignored before the fire, and no matter what party their MP belongs to, their voices must be heard now. They have been promised change: that change must come.

• Seraphima Kennedy is a writer and academic researcher"

thisisnorthkensington.wordpress.com/2019/10/28/kensington-tories-taking-the-cake-grenfell/

www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/home/gavin-barwell-lands-board-appointment-at-major-housing-association-64545?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Gavin Barwell lands board appointment at major housing association

NEWS
16/12/19
BY RHIANNON CURRY

Former housing minister Gavin Barwell has been appointed to the board of Clarion Housing, the UK’s largest housing association.

Mr Barwell, who was also chief of staff to Theresa May when she was prime minister after losing his seat in the 2017 election, will join the landlord with immediate effect.

He said: “I have long been a champion of the role played by housing associations in tackling the housing crisis, having been fortunate enough to witness first hand the vital contribution they make, during my time as housing minister.

“I look forward to continuing to contribute to the sector by joining an organisation committed to building homes and communities for the long term.”

Mr Barwell held the housing brief at the time of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, and was criticised after Inside Housing revealed that MPs had sent him seven letters asking him to review fire safety rules which were not acted upon during that time

He said last month that he expected to be called to give evidence before the public inquiry into the fire

Alongside Mr Barwell, Clarion has also appointed Tom Smyth, a vice-chair in financing advisory and an advisory partner at Rothschild & Co, to the board.

During his 23 years at Rothschild & Co, Mr Smyth has advised the boards of the biggest listed and private equity-owned companies on their funding, risk management and treasury strategies.

He will replace Tania Brisby as chair of Clarion’s treasury committee when she stands down in February.

David Avery, chair of the Clarion Housing Group board, said: “I am delighted that Gavin and Tom are joining the board.

"They join a strong team of non-executive directors with the skills and talent to help to run the largest social landlord in England. These two appointments now complete the refresh of our board due to time-served retirements.

www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/council-defends-choice-of-grenfell-contractor-219634/?fbclid=IwAR3ZQ-sXoAeWuesNc7PpUOBkJz5-jSMvVsuRdoEZSlxKdODL_YQVuZcgXZY

Council defends decision to hire firm linked to Grenfell disaster

Maidstone council has defended its choice of Rydon Construction as the developer of its planned innovation centre at the Maidstone Medical Campus.

Rydon was the lead company in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower in West London before the blaze in June 2017 which resulted in one of the worst peace-time disasters with 72 deaths and 70 people injured.

A public inquiry to determine the cause of the fire is due to resume soon, but in November last year, the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said the contractor “should not bid for further public work” until investigations into the fire had been completed.

He said the company should "refrain" from bidding for work “until we know the truth” - but he did not go as far as to impose a ban.

A council spokesman said: "Maidstone selected Rydon Construction as its preferred contractor for the Innovation Centre Project via a full OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union) procurement process, in accordance with public procurement regulations.

"The tenders for a three-to-four storey building for business use only, were evaluated against quality and price criteria (40% cost and 60% quality).

"The council also sought bank references from Rydon and held a post-tender meeting with their managing director to gain assurances given the context.

The council continued: "Maidstone council will ensure that Rydon employs a suitably qualified organisation to ensure full compliance with current building regulations, as it does with all its contractors."

The council further pointed out that it had begun its procurement process in April 2019, and had chosen Rydon as the preferred bidder in October 2019 - a month before the Housing Secretary's remarks, which it said were made in the context "of high-rise residential buildings."

Despite protests from Grenfell United, the residents group representing victims and survivors of the fire, Rydon remains on the Government's list of approved contractors for high-rise housing projects.

The Maidstone Innovation Centre will provide 37,000 sq ft of flexible office space, meeting and conference facilities for small and medium-sized enterprises working in the life science, healthcare and medical technology areas. It is scheduled for completion in 2021

www.law.ox.ac.uk/housing-after-grenfell/blog/2020/01/wandsworth-sprinkler-decision-property-power-and-resistance

www.24housing.co.uk/news/mcvey-under-fire-over-fire-safety/

MHCLG Housing Check receives over 9,000 fire safety concerns
Housing minister confirms extent of engagement so far with mailbox set up to report fire-safety fears.

"A mailbox set up by MHCLG post Grenfell to report fire-safety fears has so far received over 9,000 e-mails.

The figure for July 2017-November 2019 was confirmed by Housing Minister Esther McVey in an answer to a written Common question from Labour’s Steve Reed.

In the wake of the Grenfell disaster, the Housing Checks mailbox was established so councils and housing associations could report their stock of buildings with unsafe aluminium composite cladding.

The inbox was advertised on GOV.UK.

“We are aware that other organisations and bodies have sent mail to this inbox on housing safety issues,” said McVey.

“As of November 2019, there were in excess of 9,000 emails in the Housing Checks mailbox dating back from June 2017 – we do not record the number of emails received each month from residents to the Housing Checks inbox.”

Reed moved on to reference recent fires in asking if MHCLG will make an assessment of the potential merits of banning the use of timber cladding in residential buildings.

McVey came back with the government’s 2018 ban on combustible materials in the external wall of buildings including blocks of flats, student accommodation, and care homes with a storey more than 18 metres in height.

The ban requires all materials that become part of an external wall or specified attachment achieve European Class A2-s1, d0 or Class A1, other than those covered by exemptions.

McVey confirmed there are currently no timber cladding panels able to achieve this performance.

“[MHCLG] intends to review the ban annually through monitoring arrangements and advice from bodies such as Building Regulations Advisory Committee for England,” said McVey.

“[MHCLG] is currently in the process of reviewing the scope of the ban and will report in due course.”

Reed then went for specifics asking if MHCLG holds figures on the number of blocks over 18m in height in England and Wales that have the same form of cladding as was on the Cube student-halls building in Bolton.

McVey confirmed MHCLG had begun a data collection exercise to “build a picture” of external wall systems in use on high-rise residential buildings over 18 metres – covering private and social buildings, student accommodation, and hotels.

“We will publish appropriate summary information from the data collection in our monthly Building Safety Programme data release in due course,” she said.

Labour’s Clive Betts asked what steps MHCLG planned to take as a result of the investigation into Persimmon homes – which found thousands of homes did not comply with building regulations on fire safety.

McVey fell back on housebuilders being responsible for ensuring they build “high-quality homes which are fit for purpose”.

Where Persimmon’s independent review had identified serious failings, Persimmon “will want to take immediate action” to address the concerns raised, she said.

Stressing the improving of the quality and safety of buildings as a government priority, McVey maintained the Building Safety and Fire Safety Bills would bring “fundamental change” in reforming both the regulatory frameworks and industry culture.

She also re-affirmed an intention to create a New Homes Ombudsman as a means of redress for homebuyers.

Labour’s Hilary Benn quizzed McVey on MHCLG financial support for owners of HPL-clad housing blocks to enable its removal.

Where government intervention does not remove responsibility for overall building safety from the building owner, McVey referenced related advice to building owners on the consideration of all routes to meet costs.

Government intervention to provide funding for the removal and replacement of unsafe ACM cladding is based on the “unparalleled” fire risk ACM poses, she said.

Benn then asked after assistance to leaseholders unable to sell their properties as a result of uncertainty over the content of the cladding.

McVey said lenders are lending on flats in high-rise buildings.

“But obtaining the necessary paperwork to support a decision can take time.

“Valuers can now refer to the form produced by the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to manage valuations and lending on high-rise residential buildings,” she said"

morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/grenfell-johnson-appoints-engineer-with-links-to-the-firm-that-made-the-tower-cladding-to-the-inquiry

Grenfell: Johnson appoints engineer with links to the firm that made the tower's cladding to the inquiry
Former Labour MP Emma Dent Coad tells the Star that the PM has driven the ‘final nail in the coffin’ of justice

"BORIS JOHNSON has driven the “final nail in the coffin” of justice for the victims of Grenfell by appointing an engineer to the fire inquiry who has links to the firm which made the tower’s cladding, former Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad told the Star today.

Mr Johnson picked Benita Mehra last month to assist Sir Martin Moore-Bick, who is leading the inquiry into the June 2017 disaster that killed 72 people.

Ms Mehra previously ran the Women’s Engineering Society, which received a £71,000 grant from the charitable arm of Arconic, the US-based maker of the aluminium composite cladding that fuelled the Grenfell fire.

She will be one of two experts helping Mr Moore-Bick with at least 18 months of hearings into the events leading up to the fire.

Ms Dent Coad, who lost her seat last month, said people affected by the fire have now abandoned all hope that the second phase of the inquiry will bring any justice.

“They ripped the firefighters to shreds in the first phase and now what I hear from people in the community is that this is proof that it is — as we feared — an Establishment stitch-up,” she said.

“People are in shock but will be regrouping and planning over the next few days. We were told over and over again that we should trust the process — but we can’t.

“The appointment is the last thing we want to hear. The whole idea of the second phase has been so invested in and for this to come about is horrific.”

Grenfell United vice-chair Karim Mussilhy, who lost his uncle in the fire, is calling for Ms Mehra to stand down before hearings restart on January 27. He described the appointment as a “disgrace.”

A spokesperson for the inquiry said it was confident that Ms Mehra’s former role would “not affect her impartiality"

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/16/benita-mehra-grenfell-inquiry-boris-johnson-appoints-engineer-with-links-to-cladding-firm

Boris Johnson's pick to help lead Grenfell inquiry linked to cladding firm
Exclusive: Survivors and bereaved call Benita Mehra appointment ‘a slap in the face.
Boris Johnson appointed a key figure to the Grenfell Tower inquiry who has links to the company which made the cladding blamed for accelerating the fatal fire, the Guardian can reveal.

Last month, the prime minister picked Benita Mehra, an engineer, to assist Sir Martin Moore-Bick, a retired judge who is leading the inquiry into the disaster that claimed 72 lives. Mehra previously ran an organisation that received a £71,000 grant from the charitable arm of Arconic, the US conglomerate that made the aluminium composite cladding panels used on Grenfell.

The inquiry has already found that Arconic’s polyethelyne-filled panels were “the principal reason why the flames spread so rapidly up the building”. The Arconic Foundation’s board of directors includes several senior Arconic executives and its stated goal is to support the company’s mission by making grants in countries where it trades.

Survivors and the bereaved said the grant created a clear conflict of interest and described Mehra’s appointment as “a slap in the face” for their hopes of justice. Grenfell United is calling for Mehra to stand down before hearings restart on 27 January with an examination of how the Arconic cladding panels were chosen, their safety testing, marketing and promotion. Mehra is one of two experts selected to help Moore-Bick preside over at least 18 months of hearings into the events leading up to the fire.

“How can she sit next to Sir Martin Moore-Bick when Arconic will be on the stand and is one of the organisations we need answers from in terms of what caused the deaths of our loved ones?” asked Karim Mussilhy, the vice-chair of the survivors and bereaved group GU. “Her society has been supported by Arconic. She will look at it from the perspective of Arconic doing good things for the industry, that they are a great organisation. Her perspective will be affected.”

The Arconic Foundation grant was awarded to the Women’s Engineering Society charity, which Mehra chaired from 2015 and 2018. She helped draft the application and the funds arrived three months after Grenfell in 2017, the charity confirmed. It was the largest grant received that year. Mehra remains a trustee.

The link is particularly sensitive because anger is running high among many survivors at the role played by manufacturers of the combustible cladding and insulation materials used to reclad the tower during its 2016 refurbishment. The families of 69 victims and 177 survivors are separately suing Arconic and other materials manufacturers in the US courts for wrongful death. It has argued any litigation should take place in the UK. The UK government has also banned the use of such panels on high-rise residential buildings.

A spokesperson for the inquiry said it was “confident that Benita Mehra’s former presidency of the Women’s Engineering Society does not affect her impartiality as a panel member”.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said there were “robust processes … [to ensure] any potential conflicts of interest are properly considered and managed”.

“The Arconic Foundation donated to a specific scheme which provides mentoring for women in engineering and is unrelated to the issues being considered by the inquiry,” they said.

The inquiry concluded in October that Arconic’s panels were the main cause of the spread of fire that engulfed the full height of the 24-storey tower in less that 30 minutes on 14 June 2017. Moore-Bick said the panels “melted and acted as a source of fuel for the growing fire”.

“We will be absolutely furious if she is on the platform and it would be morally wrong to keep this person there,” said Mussilhy. “The report from the first phase of the inquiry restored a little bit of confidence. This has taken us 10 steps backwards.”

Mehra’s appointment was quietly announced by Downing Street just before Christmas on 23 December, in a move suspected by some of the bereaved and survivors to have been an attempt to avoid public scrutiny and possible legal challenge. Johnson said at the time that Cabinet Office officials had conducted due diligence about Mehra’s appointment, “which has not identified any concerns”.

He told Moore-Bick in a letter: “The [Inquiries] Act is also clear that I must not appoint … a person who has a close association with an interested party unless those links could not reasonably be regarded as affecting the impartiality of the inquiry panel.”

He said: “Ms Mehra has confirmed that she is not aware of any conflict of interest.”

Mehra was a late replacement for Prof Nabeel Hamdi, an expert in housing and planning issues who survivors hoped could better understand the tensions between the council landlord and the tenants that preceded the disaster than Moore-Bick, whose expertise is in construction contracts. Johnson provided no explanation for the move apart from saying Hamdi “was unable to proceed with the appointment”. The Cabinet Office said this week that Hamdi had reflected on the commitment required and decided to withdraw.

Concerned that Mehra lacked his expertise in community relations, Grenfell United decided to investigate her background and found details of the Arconic Foundation’s grant in the annual report and accounts of the Women’s Engineering Society.

The inquiry panel was only introduced by Theresa May after months of pressure from survivors backed by the musician Stormzy to appoint people who understand “the culture at the heart of how people living in social housing are treated

A spokesperson for Arconic said the foundation was an independently endowed and managed foundation, with a core goal to advance science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education and training worldwide and create access to these fields for girls and women internationally.

“The grant we awarded in 2017 to this particular UK association was purely on this basis,” they said"

www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/the-story-of-a-neglected-block-64668

www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/home/councillor-told-temporary-accommodation-residents-of-squalid-london-block-to-move-someplace-cheaper-64727?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/17/grenfell-johnson-urged-to-ditch-panelist-with-links-to-cladding-firm

Grenfell inquiry: Hillsborough families back calls for PM to ditch panelist
Appointment of panelist with links to cladding firm criticised as ‘absolutely ridiculous

The Hillsborough families have backed calls for Boris Johnson to cancel his appointment of a Grenfell inquiry panelist found to have links to the company that made the combustible cladding.

Margaret Aspinall, the chair of the Hillsborough family support group, criticised the prime minister’s selection of Benita Mehra as “absolutely ridiculous”, after the Guardian revealed she led a charity that received £71,000 from the Arconic Foundation, the charitable arm of the company that made the panels that were the main cause of fire spread.

Mehra, an engineer and one of two experts due to sit alongside the inquiry chairman, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, when the inquiry’s hearings restart in nine days, declined to comment. The inquiry insisted her former role “does not affect her impartiality as a panel member”.

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“The families have a right to say we are not accepting this.” said Aspinall, warning of the danger of a repeat of the decades-long search for truth endured by the families of 96 Liverpool fans who died in a crush at a 1989 FA Cup semi-final.

“How can we get to the truth when there is someone on the panel with this association? I would hate for them to go through what we had to go through, but it looks like it is going to happen.”

Between 2015 and 2018, Mehra was president of the Women’s Engineering Society charity when it received a grant from the Arconic Foundation. Arconic made the panels, which the inquiry has already concluded were the primary cause of the spread of the fire that claimed 72 lives at Grenfell

Aspinall’s intervention added to growing pressure on Johnson before the inquiry restarts hearings with sessions examining the selection of the cladding panels, their fire-testing, marketing and promotion

The shadow housing secretary, John Healey, said Mehra’s appointment “undermines public confidence” and should be reversed. The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said it was a “major blow” for the Grenfell community and Deborah Coles, of the justice charity Inquest, said it was “shameful”.

“Any perception of bias at a time when there needs to be the most searching scrutiny of Arconic undermines trust and confidence,” Coles said. “Yet again, the inquiry process is found wanting and it is those most affected left fighting for an inquiry that can deliver truth and accountability.”

On Thursday night, Johnson told Grenfell survivors and families of the victims he would investigate her appointment. Making a switch before the inquiry is due to restart will not be easy as any replacement will face intense scrutiny and must be able to commit to at least 18 months of hearings.

Mohamed Ragab, whose nephew Hesham Rahman died in the fire, was at the pre-planned meeting with Johnson at Downing Street. He said: “[Johnson] said he had no idea about this woman dealing with this company,” he said. “He said he would have to investigate and find out what is going on.”

In December, the prime minister wrote to Moore-Bick stating: “I am proposing that Benita Mehra, an experienced chartered engineer replace [Professor Nabeel Hamdi, who decided to withdraw]”.

Another source at the meeting said: “I raised the subject of Benita Mehra with him and [Johnson] didn’t seem to know who she is. I told the story from the Guardian and how she accepted the £71,000 donation from Arconic [Foundation] and it was surely a conflict of interest and … she shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the inquiry. He promised that this would definitely be investigated and that anything that causes us discomfort should not be allowed to happen.

David Lammy MP, who has long supported the Grenfell community, said the situation was “scandalous”.

“Grenfell survivors are right to describe this appointment as a slap in the face,” the Labour MP for Tottenham wrote on Twitter. “Mehra must stand down so there is no conflict of interest. The 72 who died in the fire deserve justice.”

Before the link to the US firm’s charity arm emerged, Mehra’s appointment had angered some in the Grenfell community. She replaced another expert, Hamdi, who had greater experience of social housing and community relations, which some believe is lacking in the inquiry leadership.

Grenfell United, the group representing survivors and the bereaved that first discovered Mehra’s link to Arconic, has insisted her position represents a conflict of interest and called for her to stand down.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said there were “robust processes … [to ensure] any potential conflicts of interest are properly considered and managed”.

The link is particularly sensitive because anger is running high among many survivors at the role played by manufacturers of the combustible cladding and insulation materials used to re-clad the tower during its 2016 refurbishment

The families of 69 victims and 177 survivors are separately suing Arconic and other materials manufacturers in the US courts for wrongful death. It has argued any litigation should take place in the UK. The UK government has also banned the use of such panels on high-rise residential buildings.

Downing Street declined to comment on what Johnson said about Mehra in what it described as a private meeting.

However, it said in a statement: “The prime minister reaffirmed his commitment to getting to the truth of what happened, learn lessons and deliver justice for victims. During the meeting, they reflected on the phase one report of the Grenfell inquiry, and looked ahead to the next stage.

courtnewsuk.co.uk/corrupt-boss-supplied-the-fire-alarms-for-grenfell-tower/

CORRUPT BOSS SUPPLIED THE FIRE ALARMS FOR GRENFELL TOWER
17JAN2020
A manager at the company who provided the fire alarms at Grenfell Tower is facing years behind bars for taking kick-backs in a web of corruption at Hackney Council. Lee Wylie, 47, lived an ‘extravagant’ lifestyle while treating himself to free renovations on his home which included a specially made grandfather clock. Wylie, a was a divisional director at Lakehouse Contractors Ltd and received bribes for the work he gave to his sub-contractors Richard Lee, 35, and Mark Middleton, 51,

Thanks Helena for the links etc. Of all the thousands of engineers in the UK why they should appoint this person who had links to the cladding firm is baffling. Surely one of the first questions put forward to potential panelists would be whether there is any conflict of interest? She should not be there.

@mrshoho

Unfortunately, this is the way the country works. Business experts take over inquiries, consultations etc, unchecked by civil servants who for the most part are indifferent and/or incompetent and in some cases corrupt. The Grenfell Inquiry has been all but taken over by vested interests. To name just one: Professor David Purser. He's writing the official toxicology report for the Inquiry. One of the major contributors to deaths in the tower was from burning flame retardant chemicals, mostly in upholstered furniture. Purser signed a petition by one of the world's big 3 flame retardant manufacturers in 2013 attempting to prevent the State of California from changing its furniture flammability rules to cut out flame retardants from furniture. He was also for 5 years scientific advisor to a front group funded by the flame retardant industry in the USA with the main aim of keeping flame retardants in their furniture. I and colleagues alerted the Grenfell Inquiry about Purser's vested interested, including documented proof, but they just said they have no reason to doubt his independence!

That is really quite shocking Flamingsofa. Why is it that this is allowed to happen again and again? It took the Hillsborough families decades to get n honest independent inquiry and now history is repeating itself. I'm furious for these families who have a long fight ahead.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/25/grenfell-inquiry-panellist-steps-down-over-cladding-company-links?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Tweet

Grenfell inquiry panellist steps down over cladding company links
Benita Mehra had been the target of fury from survivors and bereaved of 2017 tragedy

A key member of the Grenfell Tower public inquiry has resigned after fury among survivors and the bereaved at her links to the company that made the combustible cladding.

Less than 48 hours before the inquiry is due to start hearing evidence about “decisions which led to the installation of a highly combustible cladding system”, Boris Johnson announced Benita Mehra was standing down from a panel advising the chairman of the inquiry, Sir Martin Moore-Bick. It followed 10 days of rising pressure on the prime minister from the community devastated by the fire on 14 June 2017 – which claimed 72 lives – to reverse her appointment.

There will be more fires like Grenfell, and lives will be lost
Sandra Ruiz
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The Guardian revealed last week that Mehra, an engineer, previously ran an organisation which received a £71,000 grant from the Arconic Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the conglomerate which supplied the aluminium composite cladding panels which burned like petrol.

Survivors said her selection, formally made by Johnson, was a clear conflict of interest and some threatened to withdraw participation if she remained. The inquiry has already concluded the Arconic panels were the main cause of the spread of fire and lawyers for the firm are due to give their opening statement on Tuesday.

Johnson said on Saturday evening that he had accepted her resignation, adding: “As the inquiry’s phase two hearings begin, we remain completely committed to getting to the truth of what happened, learning lessons and delivering justice for the victims.
In her resignation letter to Johnson, Mehra said she had made “a regrettable oversight” by not connecting the grant her organisation received to the work of the inquiry and that she was resigning “with deepest regret

Mehra was appointed on 23 December, but her links to Arconic only emerged this month when members of Grenfell United (GU), the survivors and bereaved group, found that when Mehra was president of the Women’s Engineering Society she helped draft a successful grant application to the Arconic Foundation in 2017. The £71,000 grant was the charity’s largest single grant that year and was spent on a mentoring programme that ended in December 2019. Mehra remains a trustee of the charity.

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The Arconic Foundation’s board of directors includes several senior Arconic executives and its stated goal is to support the company’s mission by making grants in countries where it trades.

Mehra said it was apparent her link to the donation “has caused serious concerns to a number of the bereaved, survivors and residents core participants”, but she stressed that she had never spoken to anyone at the Arconic Foundation and her only role had been to review the initial proposal.

Accepting her resignation, Johnson’s private secretary, Emily Beynon, said that the Cabinet Office “having made further inquiries into your case, have said that they continue to believe that there is no conflict of interest that would have prevented you from taking part in the Inquiry.

But GU had described her selection as “a slap in the face” and shadow housing secretary, John Healey, called for her to be removed. As pressure rose on Johnson last week the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said the situation was “another major blow for the … community [which] epitomises the careless approach this government continues to take in the aftermath of this tragedy”.

Survivors and the bereaved said Mehra had done “the dignified thing by resigning” and it “helps lift growing anxiety ahead of phase two”.

However, a spokesperson for GU said: “The government should never have put families in this situation, they failed to carry out basic checks and understand the importance and sensitivities around a fair and proper process. We still have questions for both the inquiry team and Cabinet Office to answer, as to how this situation was ever allowed to happen.

“The government promised two panel members and must now urgently find a new panellist, to bring expertise on community relations to the inquiry. We do not need the pretence of diversity for the sakes of diversity. The panel does not need another technical expert where we already have ample provision.”

Khan said: “This appointment should never have been made in the first place. The inquiry must have the relevant expertise as well as the confidence of the community, survivors and the bereaved, so they can get the justice they deserve.”

Even before the link emerged, the survivors and bereaved were concerned at Mehra’s appointment. They had campaigned for months for a panel to lead the inquiry because they believed Moore-Bick, a retired appeal court judge, was not equipped alone to probe the social and political aspects of the disaster. They wanted additional experts with experience of social housing and community relations.

The campaign was backed by a public petition and the musician Stormzy and finally Theresa May, then prime minister, relented. She appointed Prof Nabeel Hamdi, an expert in housing and planning issues, alongside a construction industry expert. When Hamdi unexpectedly stood down, Johnson replaced him with Mehra, who lacked the experience the community wanted.

Johnson had in December assured Moore-Bick that due diligence “has not identified any concerns” and that Mehra “is not aware of any conflict of interest.”

In a letter sent to Mehra on Friday from Howe & Co, a legal firm representing 65 of the core participants, she was told “they do not consider you to be an independent, impartial panel decision-maker. They believe there is a clear appearance of bias on your part.”

It quoted one inquiry participant saying: “I strongly disagree with her sitting on the panel and I personally, and many survivors and bereaved families, believe the inquiry should not start while she is appointed

Another said: “The appointment of Ms Mehra to the panel is not right. She has a clear conflict of interest. If Ms Mehra remains, the inquiry would no longer be legitimate. I would have no confidence in the inquiry or its process. If she does not stand down or is not removed I will consider boycotting the inquiry.”

The Cabinet Office had said “the Arconic Foundation donated to a specific scheme which provides mentoring for women in engineering and is unrelated to the issues being considered by the inquiry.”

The inquiry also insisted her former role “does not affect her impartiality as a panel member”.

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After a year-long hiatus, the inquiry is due to restart hearings at new premises in Paddington on Monday. Phase one in 2018 examined the night of the fire on 14 June 2017 and found the cladding was the main source of fire spread and it breached building regulations. Phase two, which is scheduled to take evidence for 18 months, will examine decisions taken in the months and years before the fire, its immediate aftermath and the role of government.

@mrshoho

Finally she resigned but look how much effort and time it took to reach this point. I have to admire the GU and people like Stormzy who continue to scrutinise this process as clearly our Government are failing.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/26/grenfell-inquiry-to-restart-with-statements-from-private-firms?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium=&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1580062972

Grenfell inquiry to restart with statements from private firms
Fears expressed over inquiry descending into ‘blame game’ among corporates involved in construction, design and cladding

The companies which wrapped Grenfell Tower in combustible cladding will finally face public scrutiny when the inquiry into the loss of 72 lives restarts this week.

Around 200,000 unseen documents, from private emails to phone transcripts and commercial agreements, will be released during 18 months of hearings examining decisions taken in the months and years before the fire, its immediate aftermath and the role of the UK government. Some of the evidence are expected to contain explosive revelations.

But the inquiry chairman, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, faces a difficult challenge to keep the process on track. The conflict of interest row which forced the resignation of one of the inquiry panellists over links to the firm that made the combustible cladding has strained community trust to breaking point

Benita Mehra resigned on Saturday evening admitting to “a regrettable oversight”. Neither she, nor the Cabinet Office had considered the fact she was president of a charity that received a £71,000 grant from the Arconic Foundation – the cladding manufacturer’s philanthropic arm – a conflict of interest. It took 10 days from the Guardian report revealing the link for Boris Johnson to announce her resignation. In the meantime community confidence in the inquiry plummeted with some of the bereaved and survivors considering withdrawing cooperation and planning to disrupt hearings.

“The report from the first phase of the inquiry [which found Arconic’s cladding was the main source of fire spread and broke building regulations] restored a little bit of confidence,” said Karim Mussilhy, vice chairman of Grenfell United. “This has taken us 10 steps backwards.”

There also are fears that with possible criminal charges looming and live civil lawsuits claiming huge damages, the inquiry could descend into a “blame game” among the corporates.

The second phase will open with statements from lawyers for the architects, Studio E, the builders, Rydon and Harley Facades, Celotex, which made the combustible insulation, and Arconic. They will be followed by the tower’s owner and manager at the time of the fire, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO

The private companies are pointing the finger at each other and the direction the inquiry takes could make people angry,” said one participant. He said parties were “splitting hairs” as they seek to avoid admissions of civil or criminal liability by assigning responsibility to others.

“No one is going to say, ‘hands up [it was our fault]’,” said another.

The inquiry has already spent over £40m in public money, but the legal bills in the second phase are set to be higher. The inquiry is not set up to establish liability, rather to examine and make recommendations to government, but companies, and the insurance firms funding their legal teams, are unlikely to make easy concessions given the looming threat of other actions.

“This is an argument between the insurance companies,” said one participant.

Arconic and Celotex are facing civil litigation from the bereaved in US courts which lawyers said could result in a payout worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In the UK, the Metropolitan police are investigating possible manslaughter and corporate manslaughter charges and have already conducted at least 13 interviews under caution. Detectives will wait until the conclusion of the public inquiry before deciding whether to send evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service to bring charges. There is also the potential for civil litigation in the UK

Yet Moore-Bick must find a way to deliver for survivors and the bereaved who remain hungry for answers. It is two years, seven months and 13 days since the fire and finally the inquiry will examine, in Moore-Bick’s words, “the decisions which led to the installation of a highly combustible cladding system on a high-rise residential building and the wider background against which they were taken.”

“The cladding was being talked about from the morning of the fire and finally it will be coming out in the public inquiry,” said Mussilhy, whose uncle Hesham Rahman died awaiting rescue on the 20th floor. “But I am very keen to see the leaders of the council and the TMO and Rydon and Harley [Facades] and Celotex and Arconic and also government ministers [held to account].”

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A vivid picture of the build up to a the worst loss of life in London since the blitz is likely to emerge. Witnesses will range from builders who worked on site, potentially all the way up the former UK prime minister Theresa May. The inquiry room in Paddington is expected to be packed for the cross-examination of Rock Feilding-Mellen, the former deputy leader of RBKC who was the political sponsor of the refurbishment project.

Feilding-Mellen has not spoken publicly since he resigned a fortnight after the disaster. Leaked emails from the project team have already shown that officials felt under pressure to deliver “good costs for councillor Feilding-Mellen” and subsequently proposed to swap fire-resistant cladding for cheaper aluminium panels to save £293,368

More than 90,000 documents have already been circulated to the core participants, including 560 bereaved, relatives and survivors and 20 construction companies. The Guardian understands some shed light on complex agreements that led to the use of combustible rather than safer non-combustible panels. Others are expected to focus on the failure of the building owner, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to conduct proper building regulations checks. Building control officers from the council carried out 16 separate visits to check on works, but still approved them.

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The council’s leader, Elizabeth Campbell last week admitted for the first time “failings in respect to building control” and said: “We will not shirk our responsibilities. If we have done something wrong, we will say so.”

“There is a stark reality we face,” she said. “72 people died. And this council could have, and should have, done more to stop it happening.

That is really quite shocking Flamingsofa. Why is it that this is allowed to happen again and again? It took the Hillsborough families decades to get n honest independent inquiry and now history is repeating itself. I'm furious for these families who have a long fight ahead.

Big question! But this may be a clue. Phil Scraton, who was prominent throughout the Hillsborough campaign (and wrote a briliant book about it) told me that after he read out the verdict to the families (that victims were not to blame) people told him that his phone wouldn't stop ringing with requests to sit on inquiries. He didn't get a single call. He also volunteered to sit on the Grenfell Inquiry committee and they didn't even bother to reply.

I have not been able to get on to any Grenfell working group even though I'm the country's leading expert on the furniture flammability regulations, the failure of which played a major role in the Grenfell fire. Actually, change "even though" to "because".

I'm afraid this country is far more corrupt than British people realise. Industry has infiltrated the standards-making groups and is pulling the strings in government and the civil service too. This is why nothing ever changes. For example, Client Earth has twice successfully sued the government over air pollution being consistently above legal limits. Result? Nothing.

And just a couple of weeks ago we discovered that the Environment Agency is allowing companies/local authorities to illegally burn millions of flame retardant full mattresses and sofas at end-life instead of disposing of them safely as the Stockholm Convention requires. I spoke to the civil servant concerned who admitted the practice is going on but said, "What else can we do?"

This means that every day around the country several Grenfell Tower fire equivalents are taking place - with even higher levels of flame retardant dioxins being pumped into the atmosphere then settling into the ground and getting in to the water supply.

By the way, I told him plenty of things he can actually do but I doubt very much he'll act. He has his pension to worry about, after all. And I don't mean that sarcastically; I mean it literally: I've had officials actually tell me that's their major concern.