Following written Parliamentary questions from Labour's Shadow Housing Minister, John Healey, about the housing situation of Grenfell survivors, Dominic Raab has provided a detailed breakdown in what is described as a 'holding answer':
The latest figures from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea show that, as of 9 March, 137 households from Grenfell Tower and Walk have accepted an offer of permanent accommodation. Another 46 have accepted an offer of temporary accommodation. Therefore a total of 183 households have accepted either an offer of temporary or permanent accommodation.
Out of the 208 households from Grenfell Tower and Walk that need to be rehoused, 64 have moved into temporary accommodation which is self-contained, fully furnished, big enough for each family and not in a high rise building, in either the private or social housing sector and 60 have moved into permanent accommodation. 84 are in emergency accommodation, which includes those living in hotels, serviced apartments and some who are living with friends and family.
Out of the 84 households from Grenfell Tower and Walk who are still in emergency accommodation, 25 have not accepted a permanent offer. The Council is working with these households to support them to be able to accept a permanent offer as quickly as possible.
Out of the 208 households from Grenfell Tower and Walk that need to be rehoused, 144 are located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, of which 50 are in emergency, 39 are in temporary and 55 are in permanent accommodation.
Out of the 208 households from Grenfell Tower and Walk that need to be rehoused, 64 are located outside of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea of which 34 are in emergency, 25 are in temporary and 5 are in permanent accommodation.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has committed that survivors will be provided with a permanent new home in social housing within one year of the fire, within the same borough or, as close as possible, unless survivors specifically want to live elsewhere.
The Council report that it has made over 300 permanent homes available to survivors to give people as much choice as possible.
The headline is that, despite the substantial numbers of long-term empty homes in the Royal Borough of Kensington Chelsea, only 39 households are in temporary accommodation in the borough, whilst another 25 are in temporary accommodation outside the borough, 64 in all. Another 84 households are still in emergency accommodation. Of these, 46 have 'accepted an offer of temporary accommodation.' Thus it will have taken at least 9 months to assist these 46 households even to access temporary accommodation (which at the 9th March they had yet to do).
Source: whatdotheyknow