The government will most probably break its promise to permanently rehouse within a year all those made homeless by the Grenfell Tower fire, Sajid Javid has said, castigating the local council for “totally unacceptable” delays in the process.

Updating the Commons about a report from the official Grenfell recovery taskforce nine months on from the fire in a west London high-rise that killed 71 people, the housing and communities secretary said some progress had been made.

However, of the 209 households needing rehousing only 62 had so far moved into permanent new accommodation, Javid said. In total, 188 had accepted offers of temporary or permanent homes and 128 had moved in.

There were still 82 households in emergency accommodation, mainly hotels, including 25 families and 39 children, he told MPs.

“This is totally unacceptable. The suffering that these families have already endured is unimaginable. Living for this long in hotels can only make the process of grieving and recovery even harder.

“As the taskforce has said, it’s unlikely that all households will be permanently rehoused by the one-year anniversary of the fire. This is clearly not good enough, and I hoped to have seen much more progress.

“And it’s very understandable that the people of north Kensington will feel disappointed and let down.”

The local council, Kensington and Chelsea, has faced severe criticism for its pre-fire actions, which will form part of an inquiry into the tragedy, and for its slow response to events.

Javid made plain his displeasure, saying he expected the council to “take on board its recommendations and do more to listen to the community, to improve links with the voluntary sector and to act on the feedback that it gets from the frontline”.

He said: “It’s paramount that if the council is to regain trust then the Grenfell community are not just being told things are changing but they can see that their views and concerns are being heard and that they are being acted upon.”

Tony Lloyd, the junior shadow housing and communities minister, said he was aghast that Javid’s promise to rehouse all families within a year would now not be met.



“When he made a promise that everyone would be rehoused within the year’s anniversary of the tragedy, that was a promise that gave some hope to the survivors of Grenfell Tower,” the Labour MP told the Commons.

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“That promise has been abysmally failed. He’s got to say now what he’s going to do to make sure that he can give a reasonable timescale, give reasonable hope to those people who are still waiting for some good news out of the tragedy.”

Lloyd added: “Had the secretary of state and the prime minister come to the house and told us that nine months on only 62 of those households would have been permanently rehoused he would have been rightly laughed out of this chamber.”

He urged Javid again to consider taking direct control of Kensington and Chelsea council, saying: “Frankly, none of us can be confident in this council. They have continued the litany of failure that they began those nine months ago and in the lead-up to the tragedy.”

Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, said that while it had made progress it accepted the need to do more, especially to regain the trust of the Grenfell survivors.

She said: “Firstly, what is clear from this report is that our pace, especially in rehousing families, is not quick enough. So we will be addressing that issue first and foremost.”