A housing boss in charge of Grenfell Tower before it went up in flames has been chosen to speak at a national housing conference on improving building safety, in a move that has provoked fury among survivors.

Sacha Jevans, who was the executive director of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), which managed the building and oversaw the £10m recladding works that left it compromised with fire risks, has been invited to lecture on ways to “improve risk management and building safety post-Grenfell” at the Chartered Institute of Housing conference in Manchester in June.

Jevans worked at KCTMO from 2010 to 2018 and her role included handling tenant complaints, including one case about a faulty fire door on the 16th floor that the public inquiry heard may have contributed to the spread of smoke through the building. The TMO is under police investigation for possible corporate manslaughter alongside the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Ed Daffarn, a survivor who had clashed with Jevans over the fire door, said it was “horrific a senior executive from an organisation which is being investigated by the Grenfell Tower inquiry and Metropolitan police appears to be speaking as a safety expert”.

He said: “This is like rubbing salt in a wound, it seems that the housing industry has gone back to business as usual with no respect being shown to the bereaved and survivors.”

During the refurbishment works, Jevans, who is now interim strategic director at Epping Forest district council, dismissed a complaint from Daffarn about being unable to close a fire door on his floor. Daffarn was the co-author of the Grenfell Action blog that in 2016 predicted “only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO”.

During his dispute in 2015 about his neighbour’s door, he complained staff at the TMO were “unhelpful and rude and refused to take action to respond to my legitimate complaint”, and said the TMO had a “bullying and oppressive culture” and had lied to him.

The inquiry subsequently heard evidence the door may have been open on the night of the fire, contributing to the spread of smoke.

When the Guardian contacted Jevans for comment she said she would pull out of the conference.

“My intention in agreeing to speak at this conference was to offer some insight and learning and to be positive,” she said. “I would never have intended to offend or upset any of the survivors and having been told that is the case I will withdraw from the conference immediately. I’m very sorry if I have caused any of the survivors any offence.”

Grenfell United, a campaign group for survivors and the bereaved, said: “That former KCTMO staff would be invited to speak and share their ‘expertise’ tells you everything you need to know about a sector that has failed to grasp just how seriously they failed us at Grenfell and how seriously they continue to fail people across the country.”

A spokesperson for the Chartered Institute of Housing said on Friday: “We apologise unreservedly for this speaker being included on the programme for Housing 2019. It was entirely inappropriate and should never have happened.

“In particular we apologise wholeheartedly to anyone affected by the tragic fire at Grenfell for the hurt and upset this will have caused. We are working with our external events company partners to put in place measures to ensure that nothing like this can ever happen again.”







