Introduction
I am Councillor Sof McVeigh; Lead Member for Housing and I am pleased to introduce our 2023/24 Annual Report to Tenants.
In September, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry published its final report on the Tragedy. It laid bare the failures that led to the disaster and how our residents were let down by the systems and people responsible for supporting them. In the aftermath of the report, I wrote to all tenants, leaseholders and residents in temporary accommodation to say how deeply sorry I am for the way that the Council failed you both before the fire and in the days that followed - An apology I wanted to echo here.
It is vital that this Council and indeed the country, learn the lessons from this Inquiry, so that a tragedy like this is never repeated. Keeping residents safe in their homes must be our absolute priority and I commit to you to continue our work on this, as part of our £620 million major works programme. We are in the process of change, all through the Council we are acting on this and in Housing whilst we have made changes, we have more work to do.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has attended resident meetings, Tenant Consultative Committee events, responded to consultations or got in touch with me directly. The time you give to work with us is hugely important and something I greatly appreciate. You rightly hold us to account, and your input and challenge is essential to help us on this journey to change.
Over the next year my focus will be on continuing our major works programme, implementing the recommendations in the Grenfell Inquiry and imbedding the new Social Housing Regulation Act. Much of this will be contained in our new Housing Strategy which we hope to consult on early next year.