Life in the shadow of Grenfell Tower where residents are hit by delayed works and hiked costs 7 years on

Residents living in the shadow of the Grenfell Tower have called for more transparency and scrutiny of multi-million-pound refurbishment works on their homes. They have also sounded the alarm over an ongoing erosion of trust between themselves and Kensington and Chelsea Council, due in part to rising costs and incorrect service charges - including being billed for works as part of a previous Grenfell anniversary event.

One leaseholder said: “At the end of the day, you don’t have to be the smartest person to come and have a look. These buildings were built in the ‘70s, they look like they were built in the ‘70s. Not much has been done.”

Not long after the 2017 fire, in which 72 people lost their lives, Kensington and Chelsea Council committed to a refurbishment of the Lancaster West estate. Originally intended to be completed by 2020, the project has been hit with delays and ballooning costs.

It was also broadened in January 2020 to include making the estate more energy-efficient, with the aim of becoming carbon-neutral by 2030. The council now says the first block is expected to be finished in early 2025.

READ MORE: Volunteers at Kensington mosque who sheltered Grenfell victims still feel trauma of fire 7 years on

Walking around the estate today, the evidence of ongoing works is clear. Some blocks are covered in scaffolding, with other areas clearly undergoing internal alterations. Several residents the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) spoke to however said the ongoing delays, scope of the works and costs involved have impacted many of those living at the site of one of the UK’s worst modern disasters.

David O’Connell, who owns a one-bed flat with his partner, said the pair have been effectively locked out of selling their home due to the works. Not only has the value of the property dropped since the fire, but one of the potential avenues open to leaseholders, to sell their home back to the council at 'market value', has been discontinued.

Mr O’Connell added the cost of the refurbishments to leaseholders, which is currently capped at £15,000 by the Government, will increase significantly if he tries to sell. The inability to even consider moving elsewhere is particularly pertinent for his partner, who continues to suffer from PTSD as a result of the fire.

“We’ve had a lot of disruption, we’ve had the tower, the tower wasn’t even covered for a year at the start, which was pretty horrific. But the biggest issue is that it’s still not possible to sell the flat, and now there’s no market at all because the council has stopped buying flats,” he said.

Bilal Gommari, 31, who is also a leaseholder, added the refurbishment works to date have failed to address historic issues with the estate. These range from flats having single-glazed windows to door entry systems not working. He also claimed some of the new works have been botched, leading to a lack of trust in the project as a whole.

“Seven years on, I’m not saying the first year after that we should have a brand new, state of the art…it’s going to take time. But when there’s money missing, when the windows look the same, when the door entry systems still don’t work after six months, eight months, nine months, when they’re wasting money on the fire kitchen shutters…these are issues that should have [sorted] been at the start.”

Mr Gommari and Mr O’Connell also referenced issues with funding for the scheme. Mr O’Connell said new figures indicate the council is now facing a shortfall of about £100 million, after setting an initial budget of around £130 million. Kensington and Chelsea has previously told The Big Issue it did not recognise an alleged new budget of £248 million, though did acknowledge that inflation and high borrowing costs had driven this up.

A spokesperson for the council said the refurbishment is ‘fully underway’ and that it aims to deliver a ‘21st-century model estate’.

“The first block is due to be completed in early 2025. We have completed internal refurbishments at 59 per cent of properties on the estate and already replaced the roofs of four blocks," they added.

“The refurbishment process has taken slightly longer as residents are at the heart of decision making and therefore a robust co-design strategy has been implemented throughout the programme. We appreciate that this much work can be noisy so we’ve worked with residents to co-design a respite offer based on their suggestions.

“High inflation and borrowing costs have meant costs are increasing. However we are committed to the refurbishment and have recently tendered for new contracts for Clarendon Walk, Talbot Walk and Camelford Walk, and for Moorland House, Talbot Grove House and Verity Close.”

'The front door doesn’t actually work on my block'

Against the backdrop of the ongoing delays and doubts about the refurbishment, Mr O'Connell and Mr Gommari raised another point of contention with the council; service charges. Mr Gommari said his bill for 2024/25 is £6,625, up from £3,331 in 2020/21. Mr O’Connell has similarly experienced a sharp rise, from around £2,130 two years ago to an estimated charge of £2,996 today.

While residents up and down the country have faced hiked fees, due to pressures including construction costs and the impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leaseholders at Lancaster West ended up challenging numerous questionable items in the council's charges for 2022/23.

These included bills for poor repairs, overpriced jobs and works as part of the Grenfell anniversary events, such as removing lanterns. Kensington and Chelsea ended up refunding some of these for 2022/23, though Mr Gommari said the whole incident had further impacted the trust between residents and the council.

“They go and say we have firm control, we believe the system we have is good and sound. But we had to go through it and dig it out. It’s not."

A spokesperson for Kensington and Chelsea said: “We’re very sorry for the mistake that led to residents being charged for some works we do in the run-up to the Grenfell anniversary for the 22-23 financial year. As soon as we became aware of this we refunded the money to the leaseholders who had been wrongly charged.

“We have a new assurance step now for our service charge team to meet more frequently with the Lancaster West Neighbourhood Team to go through all transactions before leaseholders are billed, to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Mr O’Connell said he believes there is a fear in the council about being seen to giving Lancaster West 'special treatment'. “It’s their fear of what it would cost them to treat people in the right way is what’s driving them just treating us the bare minimum, and trying to pretend that the services on this estate are even back to normal. The front door doesn’t actually work on my block.”

On what he would like to see done to resolve some of the issues with the refurbishment scheme in particular, Mr O’Connell said he wants there to be a pause and independent scrutiny, separate from Kensington and Chelsea, carried out on the project.

Leighton Evans, 48, told the LDRS he believes the issues are born out of incompetence. “They don’t mean bad, they just don’t have a clue what they’re doing and they don’t engage with residents enough to know what we want done and what our priorities are.”

The Grenfell Inquiry’s final report is expected to be delivered in September.

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