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GRENFELL

Failures continue at Grenfell council, peers find

Housing challenges are continuing at the council at the centre of the Grenfell tragedy, a Local Government Association (LGA) peer review has warned.

Failures continue at Grenfell council, peers find

Housing challenges are continuing at the council at the centre of the Grenfell tragedy, a Local Government Association (LGA) peer review has warned. 

The review highlighted failures at Kensington and Chelsea LBC to ensure social housing residents were supported.

It comes after the Regulator of Social Housing identified a 'serious failing' in the council's 'stock quality and decency' and called for improvement.

Peers urged the council to improve the timeliness of its responses to housing concerns, as cases looked at by the peer team ‘were not addressed sufficiently well or promptly'.

Action being taken includes carrying out a review following feedback from residents ‘particularly those in social housing who have raised concerns about discrimination and poor service experiences'.

Council leader Elizabeth Campbell said: ‘We have heard loud and clear since the Grenfell tragedy that our residents do not want us marking our own homework. Taking part in the LGA peer challenge gives us an objective and constructive outside opinion on how we are functioning and how that translates to services for our residents.'

Cllr Campbell acknowledged that ‘some residents still don't see or feel the change we have been striving to make' and the council needed to be ‘more consistent in how we engage residents'.

The peer review also noted the council has ‘some very high performing services', particularly its children's services, which were graded outstanding by Ofsted earlier this year for the third consecutive time.

 

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