It is costing £1 million a month to maintain Grenfell Tower , it has been revealed.

Kensington and Chelsea Council is predicting a £15.9m overspend in its Grenfell Corporate costs including maintaining the site of the 24-storey block, legal costs, insurance liabilities and costs of the independent recovery taskforce.

The council said a £5.4m capital budget it set aside could be used to pay for some of these costs.

This is separate from the Grenfell support service including housing needs and supply, key workers and assistance centres.

The leadership team was told it expects a £100,000 overspend on the taskforce costs which come out of the Grenfell corporate budget.

The figures also revealed an expected overspend of £3.6m for storing and recovering possessions as the contract is likely to run until the end of the year.

Last year, the Ministry of Communities Housing and Local Government picked up much of the bill but the leadership team was told it is not clear if this will happen again.

The leadership team was also told children’s services face “financial risks and emerging pressures”, with a predicted £2.3m overspend on a £39m budget.

An overspend of some £702,000 is likely to come from the “increasing complexity” of special educational needs, including growing demand, support and tribunal costs.

Extra costs in existing placements is contributing to the £1.3m family services overspend.

Grenfell Tower on the first anniversary of the fire, June 14, 2018
The Grenfell Tower pictured on the first anniversary of the fire

Councillor Gerard Hargreaves asked: “Is the situation worse than implied, is the situation going to get worse?”

The council’s director of resources and assets Michael Curtis said: “That potentially could happen. There are a lot of pressures coming through the system. We need to manage that.”

Council leader Elizabeth Campbell said: “This is Quarter 1, this is something that we must remember.”

Overall the council is currently predicting a £1.8m overspend on its core services and is likely to spend £158m on non-Grenfell related costs. The total bill is likely to be £211m including Grenfell Support and Grenfell Recovery spending.

The forecast for the first three months of the financial year also highlighted a projected £289k overspend in the housing general fund. This includes a £255k overspend in management and support.

The council is also forecasting a £4.3m overspend in housing for people who lived in Grenfell Tower, Grenfell Walk and the Walkways nearby.

The council said the overspend is “mainly as a result of longer than expected time in hotel accommodation and use of more expensive accommodation, such as service apartments”.