Housing boss wanted to check tenancy status of Grenfell Tower resident who raised concerns

Kensington and Chelsea council’s former head of housing, Laura Johnson, said she asked the arms-length housing management company to look into Edward Daffarn’s tenancy after he said he was worried about “the imposition” of the new Kensington Aldridge Academy near Grenfell Tower.

Mr Daffarn escaped from the fire in 2017 from his home on the 18th floor of the tower, where he lived for 16 years.

He has since campaigned for fire safety improvements with bereaved and survivors group Grenfell United.

Ms Johnson told the Grenfell Inquiry she asked the head of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation to look into Mr Daffarn’s tenancy in 2011.

This was a year before he set up the Grenfell Action Group blog.

The inquiry heard Robert Black raised the issue of an email “from Ed Daffarn who is angry about two things, could we do just a bit of checking in his tenancy background? She (Laura Johnson)  thinks he inherited.”

Ms Johnson was asked at the inquiry: “Did you ask R Black to make inquiries into Ed Daffarn’s tenancy background?”

She answered: “Yes I did, I wanted to understand if they were leaseholders or tenants.”

The second phase of the Grenfell Inquiry is looking at the relationships between the TMO and council and the residents of the tower. Ms Johnson who joined the council in 2009 is due to give evidence over several days.

Ms Johnson  was also asked about the budget for the 2015 Grenfell Tower refurbishment project which included cladding, new windows and a nursery and boxing club.

Initially the budget  approved in 2012 was £6m, funded from the £8m capital receipts from selling basement flats at Elm Park Gardens the council owned in Chelsea.

But the costs increased and a £10.3m budget, including a contingency fund was agreed in June 2014.

The new school and leisure centre was built close to the 24 storey 1970s Grenfell Tower.

Ms Johnson agreed that the tower block was “a poor relation” to the new buildings.

She said: “Grenfell Tower did provide a poor quality frontage” to the nearby new buildings.

However she rejected suggestions that the driving force for the  refurbishment  was to  improve the look of the tower.

“Cladding it because of the school and leisure centre was not a primary motivation for, it no.”

Ms Johnson said: “People did put across that they felt there had been a lack of investment in the area for a number of years.”

She added housing came out of a different budget.

“It’s quite difficult to stomach if you are a resident stuck in a block that hasn’t had investment for a number of years when the  council is  spending money on a leisure centre and a new school. I have sympathy with that view.”

Ms Johnson rejected suggestions by the Grenfell Inquiry’s lawyer Richard Millett that she held the purse strings and the Cabinet would approve any budget she presented.

She said: “I had  the power to recommend to  Cabinet it was up to them to make the decision.