Published: Friday 2 May 2025
Kensington and Chelsea Council has published its first progress update on the 45 commitments it made in response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase Two report.
In the six months since making the commitments in November 2024, the Council has made important progress in areas including resilience, building control and consultation and engagement.
Progress against commitments
- In December 2024 the Council extended its ban on contractors and products implicated in the Grenfell Tower fire
- All officers in Building Control have obtained professional accreditation
- A “four eyes” principle has been introduced, where all Building Control completions require review by two qualified professionals
- Launched a consultation into the future of public participation in the borough, including an updated Charter for Public Participation and a review of the Citizens’ Panel
- Introduced a Fairer Action Plan, approved by Leadership Team in April 2025, setting out clear actions for how the Council will embed equality, diversity and inclusion across all of its work
- Resilience responsibilities are being included in all senior officer contracts, with Gold and Silver commanders completing accredited external training.
Next steps
The commitments we made were ambitious and there is still a lot of work to do to ensure they are embedded in everything we do. Next, the Council will:
- begin recruiting for an Independent Advisory Panel comprised of bereaved, survivors and residents to help hold the council to account on its commitment
- commission an external review of culture at the Council, overseen by the new advisory panel
- conduct an end-to-end review of complaints
Throughout this work, we will ensure we honour the principles set out in our response and, in particular, our commitment to resident power and participation, independent challenge and oversight and high standards and technical excellence.
Council leader Cllr Elizabeth Campbell said:
"I know that Grenfell bereaved, survivors and residents want to see and feel real, tangible change and we have made significant progress since we responded to the Inquiry in November.
“We’ve strengthened our resilience and building control functions, extended a ban on contractors and products implicated in the tragedy and we are now consulting on how we engage more of our residents through public participation in the borough.
"This is just the start. There is more to do, and I will ensure that we keep up the pace as we work to meet the challenge of becoming the best council as a lasting legacy of the Grenfell tragedy."
The first six-month update on the Council’s commitments will be discussed at a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee being held on Tuesday 13 May 2025. To find out more, visit the meeting page on the Council’s website.
You can read the progress update here. The next update will be presented to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in November 2025.