Industry News News in brief


Grenfell residents’ rights were breached


the country’s equalities watchdog. The use of combustible cladding on the tower


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• West London HA Catalyst has awarded three ten-year contracts totalling £210m for the repair and maintenance of its 21,000 homes in the capital and across the south east. The biggest contract worth £85m is with Engie for repairs and maintenance, gas servicing and planned maintenance to its west London stock, while Chas West has a £73m deal for the HA’s homes in Kensington and Chelsea, Brent, and Barnet. DW Support Services won the third contract worth £52m, for housing outside the London area, in Berkshire, Luton, Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Reading.


• The main contractor for the Grenfell Tower refurbishment has again declined to make any provision in its accounts for a possible fine, relating to the work undertaken on the West London tower block. Rydon Group has declared pre-tax profits of £20.8m for the year to September 2018, more than double the £9.2m it earned in the year before. Rydon’s after-tax profits for the year also rose from £7.4m to £16.6m, while turnover fell from £230.1m to £227.2m.


• Greater Manchester HA New Charter Homes has asked its tenants on Universal Credit to make extra rent payments, to avoid falling into arrears next year as a result of there being 53 Mondays (and rent weeks) in the 2019/20 financial year. It is understood tenants who are still receiving separate Housing Benefit payments will not be affected by the anomaly.


• Bolton at Home has taken over near neighbour Arcon Housing Group as it looks to build more homes in Greater Manchester. Arcon will join Bolton at Home as a subsidiary in April after the move was officially signed off by both boards. The two organisations say they expect the new partnership to deliver 1,400 new homes by 2023. Bolton at Home currently manages more than 18,000 homes. It was originally an ALMO but in 2011 it acquired its council housing stock from the council and then re-launched itself as a housing association. Arcon is much smaller, with only around 1,200 homes, but its properties are more widely spread.


and allocating flats high in the building to elderly and disabled people (many of whom died) came in for particularly strong criticism – in a move which could have major repercussions for the owners of other high rise blocks across the country. After a 15-month investigation, the Equality and


Human Rights Commission said “the state either knew, or ought to have known, of the real and immediate risk to life posed by the cladding on Grenfell Tower”, that regulation had failed and that it had also failed to tell residents about the dangers they faced. It also criticised the official handling of the fire’s


aftermath, citing witnesses who alleged that the response of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Home Office had been “overshadowed by racism”. The EHRC has a duty to promote awareness of


and protection of human rights in the UK, and its inquiry is the first into the disaster to conclude. Its chairman David Isaac, said: “Everyone has the right to life and the right to safe adequate housing, but the residents of Grenfell Tower were tragically let down by the public bodies that had a duty to protect them.” The EHRC points the finger firmly at both the


Government and Kensington and Chelsea council, which owned the tower. It said the use of combustible cladding raised questions about whether the UK has met its duty to protect life. It warned that, with many other residential and public buildings still covered in ACM cladding, “the failure to protect lives and violation of article 2 [of the European Convention on Human Rights (right to life)] continues”.


he human rights of Grenfell Tower’s residents were breached by both their local council and the Government, according to


WIDE-RANGING CONSEQUENCES “Grenfell raises many questions about the suitability of the housing in the tower, for example, placing older, vulnerable and disabled people on upper floors,” its report says. “Many of the people killed by the fire were older people who were housed at height.” Firefighters told the inquiry they did not know


how to tackle the fire in the building’s cladding, and the EHRC said the Government would be breaking its duties under the European convention on human rights if it did not train firefighters to do so. It must also reconsider stay-put policies for buildings with similar cladding. Other issues that could amount to breaches


of human rights included a lack of planning for what to do with evacuated residents, poor and sometimes non-existent consultation with residents and that “responsible authorities did not make reasonable adjustments for disabled people living in Grenfell Tower”. It said: “The state has failed, and continues to fail,


to meet its equality and non-discrimination obligations, in particular in relation to disabled people, older people, women and children and, in particular, ethnic minority groups.” Officials at the Ministry of Housing,


Communities and Local Government stressed that Ministers are determined to ensure a tragedy like Grenfell can never happen again, that it is reforming building regulations and has banned combustible cladding on high-rise residential buildings, as well as hospitals, residential care homes and student halls of residence. Councillor Elizabeth Campbell, the leader of


Kensington and Chelsea Council, said it would learn from the report. “That is part of our commitment in making sure Grenfell never happens again, whatever it takes and whatever the consequences for the council.”


Events


National Landlord Investment Shows 15 May, Birmingham 13 June, London 8 October, Manchester 5 November, London www.landlordinvestmentshow.co.uk


Facilities Show 18 - 20 June, London www.facilitiesshow.com


6 | HMM April/May 2019 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


CIH Housing 25 - 27 June, Manchester www.cihhousing.com/home


UK Construction Week 08 - 10 October www.ukconstructionweek.com


Homes UK 27 - 28 November, London www.homesevent.co.uk/home


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