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Head of RBKC building control denies ‘culture of bullying’ at the council
The head of building control at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), John Allen, has denied accusations of a “culture of bullying” in his department at the time of the Grenfell Tower refurbishment, the inquiry has heard
Appearing before the inquiry today, Mr Allen was forced to deny allegations of bullying within RBKC’s building control department and claimed that he gave his staff multiple opportunities to raise concerns about workload.
It came after an email sent shortly after the fire from a former RBKC building control employee was shown today, in which the employee said he had raised concerns about workloads and said: “I believe the department is afflicted by a culture of bullying and surveyor’s [sic] concerns are not taken seriously when raised.”
Mr Allen said he disagreed with “the whole essence” of the email and explained he had a difficult relationship with the former employee.
It comes the week after one of Mr Allen’s staff members, surveyor John Hoban, said that he was unable to carry out his role properly due to workloads and felt that he could not refuse work.
Counsel to the inquiry Rose Grogan put forward Mr Hoban’s claims that he felt overworked and that he had never been asked how he was coping with his workload pressures.
“That would [be a] surprise because my typical approach would be to ask each surveyor how they are doing, how’s their work,” Mr Allen told the inquiry. He also said that he would hold weekly and monthly meetings where issues could be raised.
Ms Grogan also noted that Mr Hoban had said he was coming into work at weekends, losing sleep due to stress and felt he could not voice his concerns to people above Mr Allen.
“I am not a bully, never have been a bully, with any staff – it’s about encouraging them for their own development and also to get the best out of them which is a reasonable thing for a manger to do,” Mr Allen responded.
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Claims of excessive workloads from Mr Hoban were linked to restructuring at the council. In 2013, staffing levels dropped from 12 team members to four or five.
Mr Allen noted that this was prompted by the building control department making a £500,000 loss the year before, but denied that the reduced team increased workloads.
The inquiry learned last week that Mr Hoban had failed to read product specification documents for the Celotex RS5000 insulation on the tower and the Reynobond aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding.
Asked how he could be satisfied that Mr Hoban could make adequate judgments about manufacturer products. Mr Allen said: “Because he is the senior building control surveyor, I had every faith and confidence in his ability – it’s a core function.”
The Celotex product document said it was suitable for buildings over 18m but only with a certain cement fibre cladding material – a detail Mr Hoban failed to spot.
Mr Allen refuted Ms Grogan’s suggestion that this was a failure of supervision on his part, arguing that only one check was necessary.
“Just a single building control surveyor would be inspecting the works on site and checking the plans, it’s not usual in any place I have worked to have a second check,” he said.
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