Kensington and Chelsea Council has attributed delays in addressing structural safety concerns at the Pembroke Road depot to the Covid-19 pandemic, though residents dispute this claim. The depot had structural issues that required immediate attention, including the closure of the link bridge. While there was no evidence of structural risk to the homes at Broadwood Terrace, residents were not adequately informed.
The Audit & Transparency Committee reviewed a report on the matter at its meeting on Monday 21 July 2025, focusing on delays dating back to 2019. The report highlighted failures in taking appropriate action following a structural survey, citing a lack of clear responsibility and accountability for tendering and progressing the works, as well as a failure to escalate and brief Executive Directors and Lead Members. The report also mentions changes in personnel, structures, and officer line reporting arrangements as contributing factors.
While the pandemic was acknowledged as a contributing factor to initial delays, the report stated that senior officers should have ensured the work was reassigned or that Executive Directors and Lead Members were briefed about the delays.
A resident of Borobud Terrace, who is also chair of the Warwick Road Estate Leaseholders Association (WRELA), addressed the committee, challenging the use of Covid-19 as mitigation. They stated that the issue came to light in May 2019, and that structural reports identified serious issues that needed to be addressed urgently. They added that none of the 12 recommendations in the 2019 report were followed, and that the tender docking was prepared sometime in March but was never followed through. They also stated that there were multiple opportunities for escalation that weren't taken up, and that there were individuals within this scenario which were negligent. While the resident raised concerns about individual negligence, the meeting transcript focuses on organizational learning and process improvements rather than individual blame. The Executive Director of Housing and Social Investment, Dan Hawthorn, stated that the focus needs to be about what we learn as an organization and how we organize ourselves...in order to minimize the risk of this kind of thing.
Dan Hawthorn, Executive Director of Housing and Social Investment, acknowledged the organisation fell short of a high accountability, low blame culture
1. He attributed some of the issues to the Covid-19 pandemic, which he said both kind of distracted the organisation, but also distracted individuals
.
Councillor Hargreaves, chair of the committee, requested that Mr Hawthorn return in six to eight months with concrete examples of improvements. The committee also discussed the importance of a centralised repository for key documents and improvements to project management systems.
Joanna Gardner, Vice-Chair of the Housing and Communities Select Committee, asked about a central repository for key documents, noting that when people leave their email boxes are closed down and all the chains go away with it.
Councillor Harvey added to Joanna's point, asking if the council uses exponential project money systems that would help to keep those records and people to know what stages are up.
Mr Hawthorn said that the situation was significantly aggravated by the onset of the Covid pandemic, which both distracted the organisation, but also distracted individuals.
He added that the council was in an approach of reactive asset management rather than proactive asset management, and that in February this year, the leadership team approved the first update of the asset management strategy for some time.
David Hughes, Director of Audit, Fraud, Risk and Insurance, said that the report recognised that the council failed to listen to residents, and that this was another example of some 29 time offments where the council didn't get that right.
The council has taken steps to stabilize the building and is considering options for longer-term remediation.
Watch the meeting on the Open Council Network.
- Dan Hawthorn, the Executive Director of Housing and Social Investment, describes the council falling short of
what you might describe as a kind of what we want in terms of a high accountability, low blame culture
. He explains that the council is working to learn from its mistakes as an organization, improve processes, and address cultural issues to minimize the risk of similar situations in the future. He also states that the nature of professional supervision is stronger and that there is less a sense of blame. https://opencouncil.network/meetings/74897
