Welcome to Rotten?, a newsletter for North Kensington & beyond – regular, adversarial, independent journalism straight to your inbox. This is #1, there’s much more to come.

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Rotten #1 – Whose Borough?

Mo Better Cutz

It’s a new financial year and Kensington & Chelsea’s Council’s spending cuts are about to intensify the economic pressures of the most vulnerable amongst us. Joe Powell MP and RBKC have publicly disagreed over the depth of cuts required and where they should be imposed. Powell told Rotten? that RBKC’s choices assume that “all funding protections will drop away in 2029 in a manner that has no precedence in the recent history of funding settlements.”

His analysis here seems sound, especially given RBKC’s habit of catastrophising over finances to justify impoverishing residents, usually followed by Council leaders expressing ‘surprise’ that things turned out to be less dire than expected – and claiming credit for ‘good financial management’.

Powell opposes RBKC’s decision to cut council tax support for thousands of the borough’s poorest residents; he prefers a second homes tax on the richest residents. The flaw with JP’s argument here is that the Council has already budgeted for a second homes tax, expecting it to fetch £7-8 million.

The era of austerity goes on….

Exit Stage Left for EDC

Former Kensington MP, long-time Labour and Independent councillor and co-editor of Rotten?, Emma Dent Coad will stand down as councillor in St Helen’s Ward in May.

After 17 years’ hard Labour, plus three as an Independent, Councillor Dent Coad has decided to stop being the butt of rudeness, disinformation and occasional fibs from the Council, and to return to her former life as a writer and journalist.

She told Rotten?: ‘I am no longer willing to be seen as an accomplice in the ongoing failures of this Council. Instead, I will devote more time to researching the Council’s project failures, woeful procurement and poor practice – disguised by a generously funded mediacomms budget.

 

‘Yes there are areas of good practice and honest stewardship within the Council, and I thank those who are decent public servants – sadly a minority. But the endless prevarication, the deliberate omission to inform Councillors of issues within their wards, and lack of timely (if any) consultation demonstrates the disrespect and disregard shown to North Ken Councillors.

’The commitment I made to my communities in North Ken 20 years ago will be better served outside the Council.’

Emma will be working with Rotten? and various built environment publications as she writes her book, ‘Grenfell Britain: greed, power and a national tragedy’, which will be out in early 2027.

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The Royal Borer Rides Again!

With exquisite timing, days before the beginning of the electoral period or ‘purdah’, RBKC funds the writing, editing, publishing, printing and delivery of a 32-page full colour propaganda magazine, Our Borough.

Rotten? doesn’t doubt they get a bulk-order discount, but it is still probably around £60,000 for printing alone, and quite possibly a further £40,000 for delivery – to say nothing of the in-house costs for the publication team.

As it arrived so neatly just before purdah, it won’t be counted as electoral material, so for the local Tory Party is a cost and conscience-free gift – at residents’ expense.

A piece on ‘Neighbourhoods’ praises the hot money about to be dumped at the Kensal Canalside and Earl’s Court developments, ignoring the minuscule level of community benefit they will offer. Kensal will have just 342 homes at social rent out of 2,519 homes in total, while Earl’s Court will have an appalling 120 at social rent out of a ginormous 4,000homes.

Neither of them are anywhere near the targets set by national, London-wide or local planning policy. Just a smattering here and there to keep the GLA on board. Neither have yet been given the green light by the GLA; here’s hoping they come back with some demands that will benefit local people rather than offshore anonymous investors.

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Placating OFSTED & CQC

Also included in Our Borough are puff pieces on the ‘excellent’ records of RBKC schools recognised by OFSTED, and likewise of our adult social care by CQC. Many schools, care homes and home care organisations have brilliant, dedicated and caring individuals doing amazing work for modest recompense.

But let’s put this in context. Over half our children attend private schools, and nearly a third attend schools out of borough. So OFSTED are scrutinizing a relatively small and carefully curated selection. Likewise, over the years the Council has disposed of every single care home they owned, stopped Meals on Wheels, and uses outsourced home care groups (many owned by US private equity).  A majority of our elders qualifying for residential care at ‘social rent’ rates have been decanted out of the borough. Some, well out of borough, meaning their loved ones find it next to impossible to give the regular visits they depend on.

Squeeze out the poor to benefit the rich. That’s the RBKC way.

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Awesome Budget Response?

Around ten years ago the CONsultation on the Council’s Budget reached just six residents. The following year there was rejoicing as it had more than doubled, to 13 respondents. The more enlightened engagement team secured an incredible response for the 2026-27 Budget, of 433 ‘stakeholders’.

However, dig into the details and you will find the following about the profile of respondents, not mentioned in Our Borough:

82% from wealthier wards; 8% from the poorest wards

No surprise then, that the squeeze on funding for voluntary organisations was agreed by a comfortable majority.

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In The Bin – latest article from EDC eviscerating the Tories’ election propaganda.

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More to come from Rotten?, on the fibs and failures of RBKC Council.

Election prediction

With under a month until local elections, the latest analysis by Rotten? suggests possible nibbles by Reform into some of the blue southern wards, while the more stable middle wards are likely to remain in Conservative control.

In the five northern wards, however, there’s everything to play for. In 2022, there were 13 Labour Councillors serving our more deprived communities, but the rise of the Green Party into the liberal-left void could mean Labour’s minority is reduced to single figures in terms of numbers of Councillors.

A bit of greenery and a drop of Farage, but expect the chronic north-south left-right split in the most unequal borough in Britain will remain.

We’ll know who’s won where on Friday 8^th May.

Grenfell Tower Memorial (Expenditure) Bill

The bill had its second reading in Parliament on 16^th March (full transcript here). Steve Reed MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government confirmed the creation of a memorial will start in mid-2027, adding, “The community has waited far too long for justice to be served. Those responsible must be held to account, and I fully support the Metropolitan police in what is one of the largest and most complex investigations it has ever carried out. We must also reform the system so that the voices of residents cannot be ignored and safety risks can never again simply be brushed aside.”

Bereaved, survivors and community members were in the Commons for a display of cross-bench unity over the Grenfell Memorial. One told Rotten? “it was fabulous daaaaarling” – one of those rare evenings of levity.

Meanwhile, back on Lancaster West…

…there’s a financial crisis, with the full refurbishment of the estate requiring an extra £100 million on top of the £150 million spent/pledged. A petition calls on the government to plug the gap. A Lanc West resident who keeps a close watch on these things told Rotten? the black hole was caused by “belief in a bottomless pot; maxing the G (Grenfell) card on bullshit; repeat repairs and ill planned experiments; narcissistic fuckery in general…”

Not to mention of course, ongoing really poor procurement practices.

Dedicated to The Dame

This first edition of Rotten? is dedicated to The Dame of Hornet’s Nest fame. Once a valuable source of adversarial journalism, The Dame has descended deep into rancid racism, dropping any residual ladylike elegance or grace. He/she is now the Norman Bates of the Kensington blogging scene, hysterically fanning the bloodthirsty hatreds of his/her dwindling readership.

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by Emma Dent Coad & Tom Charles

this newsletter was also published at emmadentcoad.co.uk.

image of Emma Dent Coad by Nevada Lynn; image of The Dame / Norman Bates from fthn.net.

if you have any stories you’d like to see included in Rotten? you can email them to us at urbandandy@protonmail.com. We are committed to not revealing the name or any other personal information of any source unless they explicitly express consent for us to do so. Whistleblowers are especially welcome to get in touch.