Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council#Grenfell Tower fire

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and its council were created under the London Government Act 1963, with the first election held in 1964.{{cite legislation UK|type=act|act=London Government Act 1963|chapter=33|access-date=16 May 2024}} For its first year the council acted as a shadow authority alongside the area's outgoing authorities, being the councils of the two metropolitan boroughs of Chelsea and Kensington.{{cite book | first=Frederic |last=Youngs | title=Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England | volume=I: Southern England | year=1979 | publisher=Royal Historical Society | location=London | isbn=0901050679}} The new council formally came into its powers on 1 April 1965, at which point the old boroughs and their councils were abolished.{{cite book | first=Frederic |last=Youngs | title=Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England | volume=I: Southern England | year=1979 | publisher=Royal Historical Society | location=London | isbn=0901050679}}

The old borough of Kensington had held the honorific title of royal borough since 1901.{{London Gazette|issue=27378|page=7472|date=19 November 1901}} The royal borough status was transferred to the new borough created in 1965, and so the modern council's full legal name is the "Mayor and Burgesses of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea", although it styles itself Kensington and Chelsea Council or RBKC.{{cite web |title=Grant terms |url=https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/community-and-local-life/community-engagement/city-living-local-life-grant/grant-terms |website=Kensington and Chelsea Council |access-date=20 April 2024}}{{cite web |title=Former RBKC employees |url=https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/jobs-employment-and-skills/working-council/former-rbkc-employees |website=Kensington and Chelsea Council |access-date=20 April 2024}}

From 1965 until 1986 the council was a lower-tier authority, with upper-tier functions provided by the Greater London Council. The split of powers and functions meant that the Greater London Council was responsible for "wide area" services such as fire, ambulance, flood prevention, and refuse disposal; with the boroughs (including Kensington and Chelsea) responsible for "personal" services such as social care, libraries, cemeteries and refuse collection. The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986 and its functions passed to the London Boroughs, with some services provided through joint committees.{{cite legislation UK|type=act|act=Local Government Act 1985|year=1985|chapter=51|access-date=5 April 2024}} Kensington and Chelsea became a local education authority in 1990 when the Inner London Education Authority was dissolved.Education Reform Act 1988 (c. 40)

Since 2000 the Greater London Authority has taken some responsibility for highways and planning control from the council, but within the English local government system the council remains a "most purpose" authority in terms of the available range of powers and functions.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YX0nAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA107|title=Local Government Reorganisation: The Review and its Aftermath|first= Steve |last=Leach|page=107|publisher=Routledge|year=1998|isbn=978-0714648590}}

The local authority derives its powers and functions from the London Government Act 1963 and subsequent legislation, and has the powers and functions of a London borough council. It sets council tax and as a billing authority also collects business rates and precepts for Greater London Authority functions.{{cite web|url=https://counciltaxrates.info/councils|title=Council Tax and Business Rates Billing Authorities|publisher=Council Tax Rates|access-date=8 April 2020}} It sets planning policies which complement Greater London Authority and national policies, and decides on almost all planning applications accordingly. It is a local education authority and is also responsible for council housing, social services, libraries, waste collection and disposal, traffic, and most roads and environmental health.{{cite web |title=Local Plan Responses – within and outside London |url=https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/planning/who-we-work/local-plan-responses-within-and-outside-london |publisher=Mayor of London |date=12 November 2015 |access-date=9 April 2020}}

The first election was held in 1964, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until it came into its powers on 1 April 1965. The Conservatives have held a majority of the seats on the council since its creation.{{cite web |title=Compositions Calculator |url=https://www.electionscentre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/composition_calc.html |access-date=24 May 2025 |website=The Elections Centre |publisher=University of Exeter}} (Put "Kensington & Chelsea" in search box to see specific results.){{cite news| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/vote2006/locals/html/aw.stm | title = Local elections: Kensington & Chelsea | access-date = 2009-10-08 | work = BBC News Online}}

The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Kensington and Chelsea. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1965 have been:{{cite web |title=London Boroughs Political Almanac: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea |url=https://boroughs50.londoncouncils.gov.uk/almanac/rbkc/2018/ |website=London Councils |access-date=24 May 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029204818/https://boroughs50.londoncouncils.gov.uk/almanac/rbkc/2018/ |archive-date=29 October 2020}}

Following the 2022 election and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to May 2025, the composition of the council was as follows:{{cite web|url=https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/Committees/mgElectionResults.aspx?ID=2&RPID=270710|title=Local Elections 2022 – Thursday, 5th May, 2022|date=5 May 2022 |publisher=Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council|access-date=24 January 2024}}

The two independent councillors sit together as a group.{{cite web |title=Your councillors by political grouping |url=https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/Committees/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=GROUPING&VW=LIST&PIC=0 |website=Kensington and Chelsea Council |access-date=24 May 2025}} The next election is due in May 2026.{{cite web |title=Kensington and Chelsea |url=https://www.localcouncils.co.uk/councils/?council=kensington_and_chelsea |website=Local Councils |publisher=Thorncliffe |access-date=24 May 2025}}

{{also|Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council elections}}

Since the last boundary changes in 2014 the council has comprised 50 councillors representing 18 wards, with each ward electing two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years.{{cite legislation UK|type=si|si=The Kensington and Chelsea (Electoral Changes) Order 2014|year=2014|number=25|access-date=20 April 2024}}

The council is based at Kensington Town Hall on Horton Street, which was purpose-built for the council to the designs of Basil Spence between 1972 and 1976 and opened in 1977.{{cite web |last1=Walker |first1=David |title=Building of the month, March 2008: Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall |url=https://c20society.org.uk/building-of-the-month/kensington-and-chelsea-town-hall |website=Twentieth Century Society |access-date=20 April 2024}}{{cite book |title=London's Town Halls |date=1998 |publisher=Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England |location=London |page=136 |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/7096/LONDONSTOWNHALLS |access-date=20 April 2024}}

File:Kensington Town Hall and Library, London.jpg: Council's headquarters until 1977, demolished in controversial circumstances in 1982.]]

Prior to 1977 the council's functions were split between several buildings, notably including the Old Town Hall on Kensington High Street and Chelsea Town Hall on King's Road, both of which had been inherited from its predecessor councils. The council held its meetings at the Old Town Hall in Kensington.{{cite book |title=The Municipal Year Book |date=1976 |publisher=Municipal Journal |location=London |page=595}}

In 1982 the then leader of the council, Nicholas Freeman, provoked a storm of opposition amongst people of all political persuasions by ordering the overnight destruction of Kensington's Old Town Hall, which had been completed in 1880. The government had refused a planning appeal for the site's redevelopment, and the Greater London Council had signalled that it was about to designate a conservation area covering the Old Town Hall and surrounding area, after which demolition works in the area would require planning permission. Starting in the early hours of Saturday 12 June, two days after the planning appeal was dismissed, the façade of the Old Town Hall was demolished.{{cite news |title=Lords questions over Town Hall demolition |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-newspapers |access-date=20 April 2024 |work=Westminster and Pimlico News |date=25 June 1982 |page=3}}{{cite news |last1=Saunders |first1=Stella |title=Heseltine asked to look at Old Town Hall site |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-newspapers |access-date=20 April 2024 |work=Westminster and Pimlico News |date=16 July 1982 |page=4}}

The Royal Fine Art Commission condemned the action as "official vandalism... decided upon covertly, implemented without warning and timed deliberately to thwart known opposition".{{cite web|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/08/carnival-clearing-not-backing-boris-and-korean-comparisons-politics-kensington-0|title=Carnival clearing, not backing Boris, and Korean comparisons: politics in Kensington|date=27 August 2014|publisher=New Statesman|access-date=5 May 2020}} The Kensington Society predicted that the council would be "completely condemned" for its actions{{cite web|url=http://www.kensingtonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/Annual-Report-1982.pdf|title=Annual Report 1982|publisher=Kensington Society|page=6|access-date=9 September 2020}} and a journalist writing in The Times recorded the council as being "deeply shamed for the example it had set to other listed-building owners".{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/property-home/article/bulldozers-outpace-the-heritage-bureaucrats-3qx0qh3q53j|title=Bulldozers outpace the Heritage bureaucrats|date=9 February 2007|access-date=15 November 2020}} Demolition work was temporarily halted, but in 1984 it was decided that the building was beyond repair and the rest of the building was demolished and the site redeveloped.

{{see also|Grenfell Tower fire#Political criticism}}

{{Grenfell Tower|sidebar=yes}}

On 14 June 2017, a major fire destroyed the council-owned, 24-storey Grenfell Tower, a public housing building in the mainly working-class area of North Kensington, causing 72 deaths.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44190742 Grenfell Tower: Inquiry opens with tribute to stillborn baby]. BBC. The tower block was managed on behalf of (but independently of) the council by Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), the largest tenant management organisation (TMO) in England, which is responsible for the management of nearly 10,000 properties in the borough.{{cite web |title=Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation – The Board |url=http://www.kctmo.org.uk/sub/about-us/20/the-board |publisher=kctmo.org.uk |access-date=14 June 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617013748/http://www.kctmo.org.uk/sub/about-us/20/the-board |archive-date=17 June 2017}}

On 15 June, Kensington and Chelsea invoked the help of the other London boroughs in supporting the survivors. Responsibility was handed over to a Grenfell fire-response team led by a group of chief executives from councils across London. Resources available to them included central government, the British Red Cross, the Metropolitan Police, the London Fire Brigade and local government across London. Neighbouring councils sent in staff to improve the rehousing response.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/18/council-leader-nick-paget-brown-grenfell-tower-response |title=Council sidelined in Grenfell Tower response as leader refuses to quit |last=Macaskill |first=Ewen |newspaper=The Observer |date=18 June 2017 |access-date=19 June 2017}}{{cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/cb002c7a-5419-11e7-9fed-c19e2700005f |title=Kensington council sidelined after faltering Grenfell relief effort |first1=Chloe |last1=Cornish |first2=Andrew |last2=Jack |newspaper=Financial Times |date=18 June 2017 |access-date=19 June 2017}}

On 21 June, the council chief executive Nicholas Holgate resigned amid criticism over the borough's response to the fire.{{cite news |title=London fire: Kensington council boss quits over Grenfell tragedy |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40362317 |publisher=BBC News |date=22 June 2017 |access-date=22 June 2017}} The Prime Minister Theresa May commented that the council "couldn't cope" in the response to the fire, and that it "was right" that the chief executive had resigned.{{cite news |title=High rise cladding 'combustible' says PM |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40366646 |publisher=BBC News |date=22 June 2017 |access-date=22 June 2017}} The Conservative leader of the council, Nicholas Paget-Brown, initially resisted calls to resign, but announced on 30 June that he would step down.{{cite web |last=Walker |first=Peter |title=Kensington and Chelsea council leader quits in wake of Grenfell disaster |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/30/kensington-and-chelsea-council-leader-nicholas-paget-brown-quits-in-wake-of-grenfell-disaster |newspaper=The Guardian |date=30 June 2017 |access-date=30 June 2017}} He was replaced as leader by Conservative councillor Elizabeth Campbell on 19 July 2017.{{cite news |title=Grenfell Tower fire: New council leader heckled by public |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40663512 |publisher=BBC News |date=19 July 2017 |access-date=19 July 2017}} Lewisham Council's chief executive, Barry Quirk, was seconded to take over from Nicholas Holgate in June and took up the chief executive role on a permanent basis in September 2017.Anthony Barej (11 September 2017) [https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2017/09/lewisham-chief-join-rbkc-permanently-following-grenfell "Lewisham chief to join RBKC permanently following Grenfell"], Public Finance magazine. Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. Retrieved 24 June 2018.

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{{Local authorities in London}}

Category:Local authorities in London

Category:London borough councils

Category:Politics of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Category:Leader and cabinet executives

Category:Local education authorities in England

Category:Billing authorities in England

Category:Grenfell Tower fire