Private contractors and consultants on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment
- Mark Allen, Technical Director of Celotex, and member of the Building Regulations Advisory Committee
- Deborah French, UK Sales Manager, Arconic
- Ray Bailey, Managing Director, Harley Facades
- Bob Holt, Director and Executive Chairman of Lakehouse services
- Bob Greene, Technical Contract Manager, RGE Services
- Roger Greene, Managing Director, RGE Services
- Chris Train, Chief Executive, Cadent Gas
- Andrew McQuatt, Partner, Max Fordham engineering, and Lead Engineer on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment
- Mark Palmer, Senior Partner, Max Fordham engineering, and Senior Engineer on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment
- David Lloyd Jones, Founding Director of Studio E Architects
- Andrzej Kuszell, Founding Director of Studio E Architects, and lead architect on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment
- Mark Mitchener, Managing Director, Rydon Construction
- Jeff Henton, Managing Director, Rydon Maintenance, and Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
- Robert Bond, Group Chief Executive, Rydon, and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building
- Philip James Boulcott, Director and Chartered Quantity Surveyor, Artelia UK
- Ian Bailey, Director and Public Sector Lead, Artelia UK
- Carl Stokes, Fire Safety Consultant on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment
Board Members and directors of the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation
- Simon Brissenden, independent Board Member, KCTMO
- Anthony Preiskel, independent Board Member, KCTMO and Non-Executive Director of the Homes and Communities Agency
- Paula France, council-nominated Board Member, KCTMO
- Judith Blakeman, Labour councillor and council-nominated Board Member, KCTMO
- Maighread Condon-Simmonds, Conservative councillor and council-nominated Board Member, KCTMO
- Fay Edward, Chair and Resident Board Member of the KCTMO
- Claire Williams, Project Manager on Grenfell Tower refurbishment, KCTMO
- Laura Johnson, Director of Housing, KCTMO
- Sacha Jevans, Executive Director of Operations at the KCTMO
- Yvonne Birch, Executive Director of People and Performance at the KCTMO
- Barbara Matthews, Executive Director of Financial Services and Information and Communication Technology at the KCTMO
- Robert Black, former Chief Executive of the KCTMO
Councillors and officers on Kensington and Chelsea council
- John Allen, Building Inspector, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council
- Vimal Sarna, Senior Solicitor at Legal Services, RBKC
- Michael Clark, Director for Corporate Property and Customer Services, RBKC
- Jonathan Bore, Executive Director for Planning and Borough Development, RBKC
- Nicholas Holgate, former Chief Executive and Town Clerk, RBKC
- Elizabeth Rutherford, former Member of the Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee, RBKC
- Adrian Berrill-Cox, former Member of the Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee, RBKC
- Eve Allison, Member of the Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee, RBKC
- Will Pascal, Member of the Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee, RBKC
- Matthew Palmer, Member of the Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee, RBKC
- Kim Taylor-Smith, Member of the Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee and current Deputy Leader, RBKC
- Tony Holt, former Vice-chairman of the Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee, RBKC
- David Nicholls, Vice-chairman of the Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee, RBKC
- Quentin Marshall, former Chairman of the Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee, RBKC
- Sam Mackover, Chairman of the Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee, RBKC
- Ruth Angel, Senior Project Manager in Housing Regeneration, RBKC
- Catherine Faulks, former Cabinet Member for Education and Libraries, RBKC
- Emma Will, former Cabinet Member for Family and Children’s Services and current Cabinet Member for Education and Libraries, RBKC
- Paul Warrick, former Cabinet Member for Facilities Management and Procurement Policy, RBKC
- Timothy Coleridge, former Cabinet Member for Environment, Environmental Health, Leisure and Arts, RBKC
- Mary Weale, former Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health, RBKC
- Tim Ahern, former Cabinet Member for Planning Policy and Transport, Kensington and Chelsea council, RBKC
- Warwick Lightfoot, former Cabinet Member for Finance and Strategy, RBKC
- Gerard Hargreaves, former Cabinet Member for Civil Society and Community Safety and current Chief Whip, RBKC
- Marie-Therese Ross, Mayor, RBKC
- Rock Feilding-Mellen, former Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing, Property and Regeneration, RBKC
- Nicholas Paget-Brown, former Leader, RBKC
Members of Parliament and civil servants
- Stephen Kelly, Chief Operating Officer for Government and Head of the Efficiency and Reform Group
- Brian Martin, Principal Construction Professional in the Building Regulations and Standards Division in the Department of Communities and Local Government
- Andrew Stunell, Construction Spokesperson in the House of Lords and former Parliamentary Under-secretary of State in the Department of Communities and Local Government
- Ken Knight, Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser for England
- Richard Blakeway, Chief Adviser to the Housing and Urban Regeneration Unit at Policy Exchange, and Board Director at the Homes and Communities Agency
- Stephen Williams, former Liberal Democrat MP and Parliamentary Under-secretary of State in the Department of Communities and Local Government
- James Wharton, Conservative MP, Parliamentary Under-secretary of State for International Development and former Parliamentary Under-secretary of State in the Department of Communities and Local Government
- Oliver Letwin, Conservative MP, former Minister of State for Government Policy and current Chair of the Red Tape Initiative
- Eric Pickles, Conservative MP, United Kingdom Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues and former Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
- Gavin Barwell, Conservative MP, Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Theresa May and former Minister of State for Housing and Planning
- Brandon Lewis, Conservative MP, Chairman of the Conservative Party, Minister without Portfolio and former Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Services
Architects for Social Housing
A Communist in Hong Kong 
Why don’t you stick to your very good and positive work looking at alternatives to sometimes needless demolition of housing estates, rather than this crude, attention seeking suggestion that a cull of all those involved in Grenfell, in whatever capacity, is what would bring justice.
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If you read ASH’s manifesto, Andrew, you will find that trying to affect change in the culture and politics of the architectural profession is one of our stated aims. Specifically, the orthodoxy repeated by you that architects should stick to design, however positive, and leave issues of social justice to somebody else is not one to which ASH subscribes. Quite the opposite.
For example, I see that your own practice, ArchitecturePLB, of which you are an Associate, is currently engaged in the development of St. Paul’s Way, a ‘residential-led’ mixed-use scheme for Tower Hamlets, as part of what your website calls ‘the broader programme of regeneration for the neighbourhood.’ As a socially engaged architect, rather than one that sticks obediently to design, you might want to question the nature of this wider ‘regeneration’, which includes the demolition of the Leopold estate. And given the widespread opposition to this regeneration by residents in the borough, you might question the extent to which it really is ‘resident-led’, or whether this is yet another example of the window-dressing for gentrification and social cleansing with which architectural discourse and practice is rife.
Should you, for instance, be working for PoplarHARCA, a housing association that has privatised large amounts of the borough’s council housing, and which has socially cleansed the residents of, most famously, Balfron Tower under the cloak of refurbishing it?
Should you, for another example, be designing housing in the middle of a housing crisis of affordability in which, according to your own website, only 35 per cent of the dwellings will be ‘affordable’, and when, I would guess, a third of that so-called ‘affordable’ is for shared ownership, a third for rent to buy, and a third for anything even approaching social rent, with the remaining 65 per cent for market sale and rent. Is this something to which an architectural practice concerned with social ‘justice’ should contribute – or should you be demanding far more of the homes for social rent the borough so desperately needs?
I see, for example, that you have expertise in sustainability. Have you, for example, considered (or better yet conducted a study) of the social, financial and environmental impacts of your development and the wider regeneration of which it is a part on existing residents in the area? Will the development of half a million pound apartments in a predominantly working-class neighbourhood drive the rents and business rates of existing residents up, contributing to its gentrification and their departure? The restriction of the notion of sustainability to the environment, while ignoring the impact on the people who inhabit that environment, is another orthodoxy within architectural practice that ASH is trying to change.
If you are familiar with ASH’s work, you will find that we place these and other question of social ‘justice’ at the forefront of our architectural practice. And if you aren’t, Andrew, we suggest you read some of the several hundred articles on our blog before you presume to tell us how to conduct our practice, or accuse us of crudeness and attention seeking. Unfortunately, we have quite enough attention already from casual commentators. What we lack is support from other architectural practitioners such as yourself.
Best wishes
Simon Elmer
Architects for Social Housing
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Simon
Thanks for your comprehensive response. Some of your facts are wrong, ie we are not working for Poplar Harca but directly for LB Tower Hamlets who are looking to develop their own site.
Last night I was pleased to be supporting the campaign to save Old Tidemill Gardens. I do not appreciate your assertion about the degree to which I am socially engaged.
I would be very happy to continue this conversation in person and not via this blog.
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I wasn’t referring to your weekend activities, Andrew, but to your professional practice as an associate of an architectural practice, ArchitecturePLB, that is engaged in estate demolition and redevelopment. And far from making assertions about your degree of social engagement, I asked questions about what actions you had taken to ensure that the schemes were not at the expense of the previous residents, none of which you have answered.
I accept your correction that you are working directly for Tower Hamlets council rather than for Poplar HARCA, but you haven’t explained how that makes a difference either to the social effects of the developments you are working on or the role of your practice in designing them.
If you’d like to continue this conversation in person, perhaps ArchitecturePLB could invite ASH to come and speak to your company and its employees about the alternatives to estate demolition and redevelopment your initial comment was so positive about. If you did, it would represent a marked contrast to the extraordinary level of hostility we have received so far from the architectural profession.
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Reblogged this on Wessex Solidarity.
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I’d welcome you coming to talk to ArchitecturePLB about your work, but firstly it would be useful to know that the The St. Paul’s Way project for LBTH involves the development of a site currently occupied by a disused GP surgery, there is no displacement of existing residents, only the creation of new homes.
I think there are probably many areas where our personal and professional beliefs align, but would find it far more constructive to meet face to face to discuss this further.
Regards
Andrew Fifield
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Great, then please write to us at info@architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk. We’ll be happy to do a presentation to your company on the social, financial and environmental costs of the estate regeneration programme, and the architectural alternatives developed by ASH.
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We’re still waiting for that invite, Andrew . . .
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