Kensington council 'accidentally reveals names' of wealthy owners of vacant properties in Grenfell borough

A Ukrainian oligarch, an Emirati sheikh and billionaire businesspeople among those registered as owning the nearly 2,000 unoccupied residences

Demonstrators protest against the Grenfell Tower fire outside a Kensington and Chelsea Council meeting at Kensington Town Hall (Reuters)

Kensington council has accidentally revealed the names of wealthy homeowners whose properties lie vacant in the same borough where survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire remain homeless.

A Ukrainian oligarch, an Emirati sheikh and billionaire businesspeople are among the owners of nearly 2,000 unoccupied properties in the area, according to a list that appears to have been accidentally shared by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council with multiple recipients, according to The Guardian.

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg was named as owning an empty seven-bedroom mansion that he bought for £16m in 2015.

Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash was registered as the owner of the former Brompton Road tube station building, which has been vacant since he bought it in 2014 for £53m.

Former ITV television director Peter Fincham said his £6m property was vacant as it was in the process of being sold to a new owner.

Other empty buildings were owned by offshore companies, including CPC - property mogul Christian Candy’s development business.

CPC is the registered owner of Dukes Lodge, a 1930s mansion block comprising 26 homes that was valued at £85m in 2015.

A spokesperson for CPC said Duke’s Lodge was undergoing major refurbishment and was “currently unsafe and uninhabitable for use”.

More than a third of the empty properties - 696 out of 1,857 - have been unoccupied for more than two years.

Only 50 of the empty homes appeared to be empty because of ongoing refurbishment works, and 64 of the homes were vacant in Notting Dale, the ward where Grenfell Tower stood.

Meanwhile, the Government’s Grenfell Response Team said that just 12 households affected by the devastating blaze that killed at least 80 people had been moved into new homes and out of emergency accommodation.

The team said that 45 offers had been accepted out of 174 initial offers for temporary or permanent accommodation six weeks on from the tragedy.

From this week, residents from 33 flats in the tower and 22 flats in Grenfell Walk which were least affected by the fire will be able to ask specialist teams to recover their personal possessions safely.