Dozens of families left homeless after the deadly Grenfell Tower fire that ripped through a low-income London housing block last week will settle into a new luxury mixed-used development in Kensington.
Sixty-eight units will be used to indefinitely house a portion of Grenfell survivors at Kensington Row, a collection of high-end apartments and penthouses where prices start at £1.575 million (US$1.99 million) and owners have access to a 24-hour concierge, a private cinema and pool, according to the development’s website.
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The city of London had already designated a portion of the building as affordable housing before the fire struck. Kensington Row is part of a regeneration scheme on the site of an old Homebase store and a 1960s telephone exchange, of which there will be 120 affordable rental units administered by the local government, as well as another 92 so-called "extra-care" units for the elderly and disabled, and 301 private luxury homes.
The co-developers, Berkeley Group and Prudential, are now "working around the clock" to complete the affordable housing units, said Andrew Porter, a spokesman for Berkeley Group. The developers expect to have families moving in by July and August.
The fire, which turned a public housing block into a scorched shell, killed 79 people. The 68 apartments at Kensington Row will help a significant portion, but far from all of the 180 families affected by the tragedy. It’s not clear what the municipality will charge the tenants in monthly rent. A spokesman for the city did not immediately return a request for comment.
Tony Pidgley, chairman of Berkeley Group, said in a statement that this way survivors will be someplace safe and only about 1.5 miles away from their former neighborhood.
"Somewhere safe and supportive, close to their friends and the places they know, so they can start to rebuild their lives," Mr. Pidgley said. "We will work night and day to get these homes ready."
From the outside, the affordable housing stock at Kensington Row is indistinguishable from the luxury units and are built to the same quality as the rest of the building. Differences typically include less luxurious fixtures and finishes, and residents do not have access to the pool and other luxury amenities that their market-rate neighbors pay for through building and service fees.
Last week, Labour Party officials called for the municipality to requisition luxury homes in Kensington and Chelsea often left vacant by absentee foreign owners in order to provide housing to the fire’s survivors.
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"Kensington is a tale of two cities. The south part of Kensington is incredibly wealthy, it’s the wealthiest part of the whole country," Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Thursday. "The ward where this fire took place is, I think, the poorest ward in the whole country and properties must be found—requisitioned if necessary—to make sure those residents do get rehoused locally."
Fellow party members issued statements backing Mr. Corbyn’s suggestion, while conservatives took to social media to criticize the proposition as an intrusion on people’s private property rights.