Grenfell survivors call for special measures after council's re-housing delay

Seventy-one people were killed in the fire last June

Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire have said a council should be placed into special measures after it was revealed not everyone would be re-housed within a year of the fire.

Grenfell United wrote to Sajid Javid to say Kensington and Chelsea Council's (RBKC) failure to meet targets "had to stop".

It follows a report which described the council's re-housing as "too slow".

RBKC said it hoped it "can re-house people as quickly as possible".

The tower block fire in west London killed 71 people last June.

• Grenfell Tower fire: Who were the victims?

• What happened at Grenfell Tower?

• A visual guide to Grenfell fire

• Messages from the tower

The chairman of the survivor's group, Shahin Sadafi, asked communities secretary Mr Javid to make an "urgent and personal intervention to get victims into homes".

A report published on Thursday said the council's record on converting plans into action on the ground was "patchy".

The government report said re-housing had been "too slow" and that the deadline for re-housing all survivors by the first anniversary of the fire was unlikely to be met in full.

Briefing MPs, Mr Javid said that nine months on from the fire, only 62 out of 204 households had been resettled into permanent accommodation.

A report published on Thursday said the council's record on converting plans into action on the ground was "patchy"

The letter from Grenfell United read: "Please excuse our blunt words. But we are not politicians. We judge people not by what they say but by what they do.

"RBKC has failed to meet the targets you set and it has failed the survivors, bereaved and the community. Promise after promise has been broken. This has to stop.

"The government now needs to step in and put RBKC under special measures."

An RBKC spokesman said: "We've already spent £235m to secure 307 homes, so that people have the maximum choice available.

"We hope we can re-house people as quickly as possible, and we will take the advice of government and the taskforce to speed up our efforts."