A familiar name, a new job

Laura Johnson, RBKC's director of housing when Grenfell burned in 2017, is now the permanent director of development and property at the Barnet Group.

Thirteen thousand homes

The Barnet Group manages the borough's 13,000 council homes. Johnson had been doing the job on an interim basis before the permanent appointment in August, at £157,078 a year.

She pushed for the cheaper bid

The Grenfell inquiry found Johnson pressed for a new contractor to do the tower's refurbishment on a lower budget. To hit that budget, metal cladding was swapped for combustible plastic-filled panels.

The fire doors waited too

The inquiry also found she slowed the fitting of self-closing mechanisms on fire doors for financial and practical reasons, after the London fire brigade warned their absence compromised escape routes.

“for "financial and practical reasons"”

A survivor's verdict

Ed Daffarn escaped from the 16th floor after years of warning about fire risk at the tower. He called the appointment outrageous and said he would be petrified as a Barnet tenant.

“If I was a resident in a Barnet council home, I'd be absolutely petrified.”

Barnet stands by the hire

A spokesperson said the group knew the inquiry findings and weighed them, then judged Johnson the strongest candidate in a publicly advertised process and legally eligible to hold the post.

“we concluded that she was the strongest candidate and legally eligible to hold the position”

The charges have not landed

The Met is seeking charges against 57 individuals and 20 companies. The CPS expects decisions by June 2027, the disaster's tenth anniversary, so no one has been cleared or convicted yet.

Why the timing stings

Grenfell United called the permanent appointment a staggering disregard for the inquiry's findings, made before the criminal process is anywhere near finished.

“No one named in the Grenfell inquiry should be while we are still awaiting the outcome of the police investigation.”