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The leader of the London council that housed residents in Grenfell Tower, where 80 people died in a fire just over two weeks ago, has announced he is stepping down.
Key points:
- Borough chief Nicholas Paget-Brown and his council have been widely criticised since the Grenfell disaster
- This week a council meeting that was made public by court order was shut down after just 20 minutes
- Mr Paget-Brown resigned by saying he had to accept his "share of responsibility" for "perceived failings"
Nicholas Paget-Brown, the Conservative leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, said he had to accept responsibility for what he described as "the perceived failings" of the council.
His resignation followed widespread criticism from the Prime Minister's Office, the Mayor of London and local residents.
Mr Paget-Brown had been admonished for his council's response to the victims of the fire but then faced further criticism from local media and residents for closing down a council meeting.
Initially the meeting was set to be held behind closed doors but a court order forced the council to hold it in public.
That meeting lasted just 20 minutes. After it was shut down London Mayor Sadiq Khan called on the council's leadership to resign.
The Prime Minister's Office reiterated the meeting should have gone ahead.
"As council leader, I have to accept my share of responsibility for these perceived failings. In particular, my decision to accept legal advice that I should not compromise the public enquiry by having an open discussion in public yesterday, has itself become a political story," he said.
His resignation will not completely relieve the pressure on the council.
Documents obtained by the BBC show that zinc cladding originally proposed for the Grenfell Tower renovation was instead replaced with aluminium cladding that saved around $500,000.
The investigation will look at whether that decision made the tower less fire-resistant.
Sue Caro from the action group Justice 4 Grenfell said she was appalled by the cost-cutting.
"That has affected [us] and the wider community are utterly sick of this lack of value ascribed to human beings who pay their council tax, who pay these people's wages. I mean, it is unacceptable," she said.
Across Britain, cladding is being tested on tower blocks — so far, 149 buildings have failed those tests.
It will be a while before authorities get to the bottom of what happened at Grenfell Tower and ensure that similar buildings are safe for tens of thousands of residents across the country.
Topics: government-and-politics, local-government, fires, industrial-fires, disasters-and-accidents, accidents, united-kingdom
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