RBKC and Savills – The truth they don’t want us to see!

On 26th May 2014 the Grenfell Action Group published an article that highlighted the fact that the Estate Agent to the nobs, Savills, appear to have been given responsibility by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to help shape the Council’s future social housing policy:

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2014/05/26/selling-the-family-silver-rbkc-savills-and-the-carve-up-of-our-communities/

This is the same Savills who were commissioned by RBKC to draft two reports entitled “Options Appraisal for Investment in the Council’s Housing Stock” and “Asset Performance Evaluation Report” and the same Savills who were seen selling their wares earlier this year at the notorious MIPIM in Cannes, France.

We know that this revelation attracted a lot of attention and ruffled some feathers as we had record visitors to the blog around the time of publication and we believe that the relationship between RBKC, Savills and MIPIM will now be investigated further by other media outlets, including, “Rotten Boroughs” in Private Eye.

We have decided to publish a short thread of emails that we believe clearly show RBKC Council attempts to delay the release of these reports and treat their obligations to conduct their own “Internal Review” within twenty days, as required under Freedom of Information legislation, with the same contempt as they do the residents of Lancaster West Estate. This is by no means the first time officers of the Royal Borough have dragged their feet in this way. They do so routinely and with impunity, and the fact that this “laissez-fair” attitude to the Freedom of Information Act appears to have resulted from the inaction of LeVerne Parker, the Rotten Borough’s Chief Solicitor and Monitoring Officer, is particularly galling and tells us all we need to know about this Council’s culture of disrespect towards any authority except their own!

While we have always found Mr Robin Yu, from the Council’s Information Governance Team, to be both courteous and professional, we have to wonder if RBKC and their Chief Solicitor and Monitoring Officer even understand that their role as a Local Authority is to uphold the Law and not use legislation, guidance or recommendations as a way of frustrating legitimate requests for information.

Once we receive a full response from Mr Yu to our email dated Monday 19th May we will share this with our readers, but please don’t hold your breath in the meantime. We believe that RBKC will do everything in its’ power to stop us revealing the truth about the future of the Rotten Borough’s social housing policy and the links between RBKC, Savills and MIPIM.

From: Robin.Yu@rbkc.gov.uk
To: ***************
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information Act request (Ref: 2013-1081) Response and Query on KALC
Date: Mon, 19 May 2014

Dear *******,

We’re meeting tomorrow to discuss and hopefully finalise this request. If all goes well then I hope to be able to respond to you by the end of the week.

 Yours sincerely

 Robin Yu

Information Protection Assistant, Information Governance Team, Information Systems Division, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

From: ***********

Sent: 19 May 2014
To: Yu, Robin: CP-ISD
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information Act request (Ref: 2013-1081) Response and Query on KALC

Dear Mr Yu,

Please can you advise me whether there has been any progress with regards my legitimate requests detailed in my email sent to you on 6th April?

Thank you for your assistance with this matter.

Regards,

***********

From: Robin.Yu@rbkc.gov.uk

To: ***********

Subject: RE: Freedom of Information Act request (Ref: 2013-1081) Response and Query on KALC
Date: Mon, 12 May 2014

Dear *******,

I apologise as we have not been able to complete our review within the timeframe previously stated. We will endeavour to complete this as soon as possible. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Your sincerely

Robin Yu

From: Yu, Robin: CP-ISD
Sent: 15 April 2014
To: *********’
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information Act request (Ref: 2013-1081) Response and Query on KALC

 Dear *********,

I apologise for the late acknowledgement of your request for internal review, which has forwarded to the Chief Solicitor and Monitoring Officer to conduct.

There is no statutory deadline for internal reviews but we aim to respond within 20 working days as recommended by the Information Commissioner’s Office, therefore I aim to respond by 7^th May.

 Yours faithfully

 Robin Yu