FAQs

Following its statement on 6 September 2021 in response to media coverage speculating on the future of Grenfell Tower, the Memorial Commission wrote to the secretary of state for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to seek clarity about the Tower’s future. After receiving a reply reaffirming his commitments to the community, we were pleased to resume our meetings and conversations with the community in January 2022, and to continue our work towards creating a fitting memorial to our loved ones.

To ensure an inclusive approach, the Memorial Commission is seeking the views of the bereaved, survivors and North Kensington residents through its consultation process. This includes regular community meetings and drop-ins.

The Commission’s membership is structured to ensure the voice of the bereaved carries the most weight, equivalent to a 50% representative vote.

The government worked with representatives of the bereaved, survivors and Lancaster West Estate residents to agree to set up a Memorial Commission. After discussions with the community, a set of written principles was published to ensure that the process of agreeing a memorial is community led. In recognition of the particular significance of the site to bereaved families, the voice of the bereaved carries the most weight

The Commission is consulting with those bereaved by the Grenfell tragedy, survivors of the tragedy, and North Kensington residents to agree a community-led proposal for the most fitting and appropriate way to remember those who lost their lives.

Two independent co-chairs were selected by the community representatives in February 2020 

• Michael Lockwood
• Thelma Stober

Click here for more information

The Memorial Commission is made up of representatives of the bereaved, survivors, and residents of the Lancaster West Estate. Along with the independent co-chairs, the Commission also includes relevant public authority representatives from Kensington and Chelsea Council, the local NHS and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. These public authorities do not have full membership on the Commission – they are ‘ex-officio’ members and support community-driven decisions in good faith.

Read more here  

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is funding the Commission’s work and providing administrative support.

The government has committed to transfer ownership of the future memorial, if that is the wish of the community, and an organisation will be set up to own and maintain it. 

The Memorial Commission and the community will decide how the memorial site will be owned and sustainably managed for the long term.

The Memorial Commission is having conversations at online community meetings and drop-ins to develop options on ownership including:

• Sustainability (ensuring any arrangements are effective and long-lasting)​
• Funding (ensuring that the memorial is financially secure long term)​
• Form of the memorial (for example, will it be a garden or building or both?)​
• Community involvement (for example, does the community want legal responsibilities and operational responsibilities?)
  
  Read more here. 
  See the Memorial Commission's timeline here.

The Commission is supported by the government but is independent of any organisation. The Commission includes public authority representatives who are responsible for taking forward and implementing the findings from the Commission’s interim and full reports when they are published . Read more about the public authority representatives here.

The Commission’s scope is to determine the long term future of the site. Public Authorities with relevant responsibilities will take forward and implement the findings from the Commission’s report when the site is made ready and available for future use.

The Memorial Commission can be contacted by email at GTMCSecretariat@levellingup.gov.uk or through the contact page.

To talk to community representatives, ask questions and share your ideas on a future memorial come to the community meetings and drop-ins: see the dates for your diary page for details.

The Memorial Commission uses the definition for next of kin as identified by the Metropolitan Police. However, the Commission recognises that there are people who lost their loved ones in the tragedy who may not necessarily have been listed as the next of kin and understands that family structures can often be complex and difficult to define. The Commission is keen to adopt the most inclusive approach to working with families and to engage with both those who are formally listed as next of kin as well as closely bereaved family members.

The first meeting took place on 12 September 2019. Read the minutes of all meetings here.

The Memorial Commission is made up of representatives of the bereaved, survivors, and residents of the Lancaster West Estate, and two independent co-chairs. 

The Memorial Commission’s community representatives and co-chairs are supported by relevant, ex-officio, public authority representatives and experts who attend meetings by invitation only. They are not members of the Memorial Commission and do not have voting or decision-making rights. 

Read more here 

Voter turnout was 67% among the bereaved families¹. Turnout is calculated as the number of families that voted as a percentage of those families eligible to vote.

¹In November 2018 we contacted all named next of kin (as determined by the Metropolitan Police) seeking contact information for those who wanted to be involved in the process to establish the Memorial Commission. A small number of families opted out of receiving further contact from us. The remaining families were invited to vote for their community representatives. We also wrote to close relatives to make them aware that voting codes had been sent out, to enable families to come together and agree how to vote. 

All households formerly living in Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk were sent letters with their voting instructions and 17% of households voted.

All householders living on the Lancaster West estate were sent letters with their voting instructionsand 4% of households voted.

Tpas, the tenant engagement experts, oversaw the voting process and verified the count. They  confirmed that they were content that the voting process was fair and open.  

You can contact the community representatives here or from our contact page.

See who your community representatives are.

For information about the Memorial Commission, please contact the Commission’s secretariat by emailing GTMCsecretariat@levellingup.gov.uk or calling 0303 444 4831.

For press or media enquiries please email newsdesk@levellingup.gov.uk or call 0303 444 1209.

As part of its work, the Commission will establish a community-led proposal for how the memorial site will be owned and sustainably managed for the long term.

There is a restrictive covenant on the tower site that ensures that, once it is ready for future use, it will be handed over to an ownership body of the community’s choice.

The Commission recognises the importance of ensuring that the memorial is owned and managed in a way that ensures it will last for future generations, so that Grenfell is never forgotten.

They are exploring how other memorials have been owned and managed long term, including the Aberfan Memorial. It is important that the whole community is able to give their views on future ownership and maintenance and this is something the Commission is exploring with bereaved, survivors and residents at meetings and in other community engagement.

The government and council have no plans to redevelop the site. They have publicly committed in the written principles that if the bereaved, survivors and local community do not want the site to be redeveloped, it will not be redeveloped.