Members appointed to Grenfell taskforce

27 Jul 17

Communities secretary Sajid Javid has named four members to the Grenfell Recovery Taskforce, which will oversee the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s efforts to recover from last month’s fire.

Javid said the taskforce would “provide assurance” to him that the council had “the capacity and capability to deliver an effective long term recovery plan for its residents taking into account their views”.

Kensington & Chelsea was widely criticised for its faltering response to the tower block blaze, which led to calls for the government to send in commissioners to take the council over and to the resignations of leader Nick Paget-Brown and chief executive Nicholas Holgate.

The taskforce members will be: Aftab Chughtai, chair of the West Midlands Police Independent Advisory Group; Javed Khan, chief executive of children’s charity Barnardo’s; Jane Scott, Conservative leader of Wiltshire council; Chris Wood, partner at Altair housing consultancy, and former director of housing for three London boroughs.

Their initial roles will be to look at whether the council has proper arrangements to engage with the local community on long-term recovery plans, ensure immediate housing needs are addressed and to tackle weaknesses in the much-criticised Kensington & Chelsea Tenant management Organisation.

Javid said: “Over the next few months there needs to be a managed transition from the Grenfell Response Team, also known as Gold Command, who are dealing with the immediate response, to a council we are confident can deliver the longer term recovery for the community.”

He warned the taskforce might have to gain additional members and powers “in response to their assurance reports”.

 

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