Latest news with #QuentinMarshall
The Guardian
27-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Grenfell fire fridge maker accused of safety test failings in council lawsuit
The company that made the fridge-freezer blamed for starting the Grenfell Tower fire has been accused in a lawsuit lodged by the local council of failing to run adequate safety tests on that model of appliance. The Royal Borough Kensington and Chelsea has brought a lawsuit against Hotpoint-maker Beko Europe, previously Whirlpool, as part of wider legal action against companies it believes are culpable for the fire eight years ago that killed more than 70 people. RBKC, which has brought the suit alongside the borough's Tenant Management Organisation, was heavily criticised for its handling of the fire and subsequent response in a public inquiry into the tragedy. The local authority is suing a range of companies at the high court for more than £358m, including those involved with the refurbishment and cladding as well as the maker of the Hotpoint fridge-freezer where the public inquiry concluded the blaze started. In a legal filing, the borough said that the appliance contained materials that could 'catch fire and burn easily', according to the Financial Times, which first reported the council's allegations against the appliance maker. Lawyers representing the claimants argue that the company did not adequately test the materials used in the model against applicable fire standards. The lawyers claim that if the materials – especially plastic backing, foam and polystyrene – had been tested they would have failed under the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994. It 'should have been obvious to any reasonably competent designer, manufacturer and/or supplier of the fridge-freezer that the plastic backing was not resistant to ignition and/or the spread of fire', the legal claim states. Defence documents have not yet been filed with the court, but Whirlpool said that it was 'vigorously defending' the legal action. 'Whirpool Corporation disputes and is vigorously defending the proceedings brought by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea,' the company said. 'It would not be appropriate to comment further on ongoing litigation.' Turkey-based Arçelik and New York-listed Whirlpool struck a deal last year to combine their European domestic appliance businesses under Beko Europe. At the public inquiry, Whirlpool claimed that the fire could have been started by a lit cigarette rather than an electrical fault. However, inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick dismissed this assertion as 'fanciful', saying that the evidence left him in 'no doubt that the fire originated in the large fridge-freezer'. While RBKC is pursuing a number of actions at the high court it also faced strong criticism at the inquiry. Quentin Marshall, chair of the borough's housing scrutiny committee with oversight of Grenfell Tower, told the inquiry that the council 'lacked a little humanity' in its dealings with residents before the 2017 fire. His admission came after it emerged that he had personally dismissed residents' complaints about refurbishment works as 'grossly exaggerated'. The council has said it has made significant changes to its operations since 2017. A spokesperson for the council said: 'We have issued legal proceedings against a number of companies, in line with the council's ongoing commitment to ensure those parties pay a share of the costs incurred against the public purse.'
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
London council slashes ‘gold plated' staff pensions funding
A London council has cut its contributions to staff's 'gold-plated' pensions amid increased scrutiny over the cost of the schemes. Kensington and Chelsea council will lower its contribution rate from 7.5pc to zero from April for one year, despite warnings from its actuary that the cut was 'inappropriate'. The local authority pension fund's investment committee voted in favour of the move this week after deciding that money from the fund – which is running a surplus of over 200pc – would be better spent elsewhere. The authority has committed to only raising residents' council tax by 4pc – below the 5pc cap – while the £9m savings from the cut in contributions will be poured into a fund for Grenfell survivors. Other cash-strapped town halls across England and Wales are also expected to cut the amount they pay towards staff pensions as they struggle to balance the books on their expensive retirement schemes. A Telegraph investigation found that 7,609 ex-council workers enjoyed a pension of more than £50,000 a year. Of those, 203 receive more than £100,000 – almost three times the UK's national average wage. The Kensington and Chelsea Pension Fund has 3,922 pensions in payment, 66 of which are worth between £50,000 and £100,000 a year. Council pension schemes offer members a guaranteed income for life, which rises annually with inflation. But in 2019, Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS), which covers pensions for more than 6 million workers across England and Wales, ran into a £5.9bn deficit. It left councils struggling to keep pace with payouts. In 2022, around a third of the 87 schemes in England and Wales were still in a deficit. To plug the gap, local authorities were forced to increase the amount they pay into the scheme. Their average contributions rose from 18.6pc to 19.8pc in 2022, while workers' contributions rose by just 0.1pc in the same period. By contrast, members of private pensions schemes can receive as little as 3pc from their employer. However, the schemes are now running an £85bn surplus, paving the way for possible reductions in contribution rates. Kensington and Chelsea's contribution rate had been set to rise to 15pc in 2025-26. It is the only town hall with a pension fund whose funding level is over 200pc. The council, which provides services to both the wealthiest parts of Britain and severely deprived neighbourhoods, has said it would have to take 'difficult decisions' as it seeks to plug a 'significant' £40m budget hole over the next four years. Quentin Marshall, chair of the council's £2bn fund, told the Financial Times: 'This is money that is so clearly superfluous to our need to pay pensions that when faced with either having to find resources from elsewhere or doing this, in our judgement this is a better option.' The £9m of savings from the cut in contributions will be added to a fund to support survivors and victims' families of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in the borough, the council said. Employee pension contributions will not be affected. Contribution rates of employers in the LGPS are usually set once every three years following the pension fund's triennial valuation, but an employer can trigger a review in between formal valuations. Kensington and Chelsea's decision to cut contribution rates was taken despite Hymans Robertson, the fund's actuary, warning before the vote that it would be 'inappropriate' to lower the contributions before the next valuation in April. It also cautioned that the decision may lead to expectations that a zero contribution rate could be sustainable in the long term. Mr Marshall added that the decision to cut contributions was 'definitely happening', barring any challenge from the Government or the Pensions Regulator. The council has the lowest employer contribution rate of England and Wales's 86 local authority pension funds, and has delivered the best performance of any UK local authority fund over the past decade, at 10.8pc, according to shareholder advisory Pirc. The £391bn LGPS has an average employer contribution rate of 21pc of staff salaries. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Sign in to access your portfolio
