The horror of the Grenfell Tower disaster raises many questions about who is accountable to whom. This has been brought home by the apocalyptic messages posted by the Grenfell Action Group prior to the fire. Residents blogged that 'only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO' - Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation.
KCTMO, a TMO (Tenant Management Organisation) is owned and run by tenants. The board typically comprises tenant representatives, local councillors and independent representatives. Yet tenants had formed an 'action group' - which suggests their voices were not being heard by the KCTMO.
However, surprisingly, KCTMO is not the 'landlord', a fact that has understandably confused residents. The real landlord, Kensington & Chelsea Council, still owns about 9,760 properties, but on the 1st April 1996 passed responsibility for managing all housing services to KCTMO. This transfer is unique not only because it was the largest of its kind, but also because of the wide range of services transferred including fire safety. This wholesale abandonment of responsibility by Kensington & Chelsea Council may explain its lack of responsiveness to the concerns of tenants in recent years.
TMOs are developed under Right to Manage regulations introduced in 1994, and have been since revised. They were originally intended to empower tenants. However, in reality they simply made councils less accountable. Under the regulations, tenants with a complaint about housing services must first contact the managing agents. But then it is quite common for a stalemate to ensue should the TMO and council landlord decline to act. Council tenants can still have recourse to complain to the Housing Ombudsman, but getting a complaint to that stage is laborious. Another obstacle is that the tenants cannot always rely on the local authority environmental health team to investigate hazards identified because that team cannot act where to do so could place them in conflict with their council.
Moreover, changes introduced in 2010 by the Conservative housing minister of the time, Grant Shapps, further eroded provisions that had empowered tenants. The quango National Tenant Voice was abolished; by 2011, councils were no longer required to provide data to the Audit Commission on tenant satisfaction; and by 2012 the Tenant Services Authority closed. To cap it all off, the swingeing 2013 legal aid cuts made it even more difficult for tenants to access their rights.
What is needed now is a fundamental rebalancing to restore rights and security to tenants across the country and to make councils answerable to those that they house, who are often among the most vulnerable in our society. There must be effective mechanisms for tenant participation without obscuring who is accountable to whom. The Grenfell disaster underlines the urgency of this change.
