In the government’s formal response yesterday to the Grenfell Inquiry’s final phase, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner told MPs a key task would be to review the governance arrangements of third-party organisations that manage housing on behalf of council landlords.

At the time of the fire, which led to the deaths of 72 people, Grenfell Tower was managed on behalf of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenants’ Management Organisation (KCTMO). The TMO had been set up in the mid-1990s under Right to Manage regulations with origins in the 1985 Housing Act, more than a decade before the arms-length management organisation (ALMO) model was introduced. 

However, the Kensington and Chelsea TMO was given special dispensation in the early 2000s to also call itself an ALMO so that it could qualify for Decent Homes grant funding. This money to update council homes was offered by central government to arms-length management organisations that had earned high Audit Commission scores.

“But KCTMO had none of the governance structures and safeguards that an ALMO must have,” said Eamon. “The TMO was an independent body that that the council had no legal right to close or interfere with, whereas ALMOs are always wholly owned by their parent councils, and the council has the power to close them at any time.

“Our members work closely with their parent councils at every turn – and their tasks and responsibilities are set out in a formal management agreement that the council itself draws up and reviews regularly. This is a very different kind of governance from the way the KCTMO was operated. The need to listen to residents is very firmly embedded in ALMO culture.

“I am convinced that had Kensington & Chelsea had a genuine ALMO, residents’ views and concerns on the Lancaster West Estate would not have been drowned out in the way that the inquiry findings tell us they were.”

In the early days, ALMOs were also independently audited by the central government’s Audit Office, and it has always been mandatory that each ALMO is run by an independent board usually made up of independent experts, serving councillors – and tenants. No such regulation has ever applied to TMOs.

“We obviously welcome the Deputy Prime Minister’s diligence in making sure all the Grenfell Inquiry recommendations are acted on,” added Eamon. “Indeed, we and our members have contributed fully to the government’s consultation around how TMOs and ALMOs are managed and our members will, as always, be ready to make any changes asked of them.”