To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will ensure that all households made homeless by the Grenfell Tower fire regardless of whether they lived in that tower are offered secure tenancies when they are rehoused.
Answered on
16 April 2018
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council made a commitment to rehouse in permanent social housing anyone who, immediately before the fire, was living at Grenfell Tower or Grenfell Walk as their main home; this includes council tenants, resident leaseholders, subtenants or lodgers and tenants of non-resident leaseholders.
Households from Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk who accept a council property will be offered a lifetime secure tenancy, and households from Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk who accept a housing association property will be offered a lifetime assured tenancy. The Council has guaranteed that those who held a council tenancy at Grenfell Tower or Grenfell Walk who move into a permanent housing association property will continue to have at least the same tenancy rights as they previously had.
Of the households from the wider Estate who moved into emergency accommodation after the fire, many have returned to their homes. I understand that some residents do not want to return home or do not yet feel ready to do so. For those who do not yet feel ready to return home, the Council is ensuring that suitable, good quality, self-contained interim accommodation is available, and is focusing on making refurbishments and repairs to accommodation on the Lancaster West Estate to enable people to return.
For those who do not wish to return home, the Council has published a permanent rehousing offer. This applies to council tenants from Barandon, Hurstway and Testerton Walks and Bramley and Treadgold Houses. Eligible households from those blocks who accept a council property will be offered a lifetime secure tenancy and eligible households from those blocks who accept a housing association property will be offered an assured tenancy. The Council will request that housing associations grant tenancies of at least the same length as that held by the tenant previously.