Housing boss who oversaw cost-cutting at Grenfell tower handed £150,000 a year council role

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 12:08 EDT, 14 September 2026 | Updated: 12:08 EDT, 14 September 2026 A housing boss who oversaw cost-cutting measures at Grenfell Tower has been handed a £150,000-a-year council role, to the dismay of bereaved families.They have slammed the decision to hire Laura Johnson, who worked for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) at the time of the fire in 2017, as ‘outrageous’.An inquiry into the disaster - in which 72 people died - found that Ms Johnson, who was then the council's housing director, had pushed to switch to a contractor who would carry out the tower’s renovation works on a lower budget.Ultimately, this meant that metal cladding was swapped for combustible plastic-filled panels.It also found that she slowed down the installation of self-closing fire doors in the tower for ‘financial and practical reasons’, despite warnings from the London Fire Brigade.Ms Johnson has now been appointed the permanent director of development and property at the Barnet Group, which manages the borough’s 13,000 council homes.Ed Daffarn, who escaped from the 16th floor of the tower after repeatedly warning about serious fire risks at Grenfell, told The Guardian: ‘It is an absolutely outrageous decision.‘The fact that we, as bereaved survivors, haven’t received any justice nine years after the fire, and yet the people that were involved in senior decision-making are able to carry on working in the social housing sector, have responsibility for health and safety, and receive massive salaries - it feels so disrespectful. Laura Johnson was director of housing at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea at the time of the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017 She has now been made the permanent director of development and property at the Barnet Group, which manages the borough’s 13,000 council homes‘If I was a resident in a Barnet council home, I’d be absolutely petrified.’Ms Johnson had been working in her role at the Barnet Group on an interim basis before she was appointed permanently in August on a salary of £157,078.A spokesman for the Barnet Group said she was the ‘strongest candidate’ in a competitive field.‘We were aware of the Grenfell inquiry findings and considered them carefully during the recruitment process,’ they said. ‘We also took into account Ms Johnson’s professional experience, subsequent performance, references, qualifications and overall suitability for the role.‘Following a robust and publicly advertised recruitment process, we concluded that she was the strongest candidate and legally eligible to hold the position.’