The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has warned residents that a full recovery from a major cyber attack will not be complete until the summer, months after the initial breach occurred.
Widespread Disruption to Critical Services
In a detailed report to be presented to the council's Cabinet, officials outlined the severe and ongoing impact of the November hack. While basic services were maintained through manual workarounds and a seven-day-a-week contact centre, response times slowed dramatically and the risk of missed interventions increased.
The attack crippled core IT systems, leading to a cascade of problems. Adult and children's social care teams have been operating with restricted access to case management systems, forcing staff to rely on partial or cached data for critical safeguarding decisions. This has created a significant backlog of work recorded outside the official IT system.
Financially vulnerable residents have been hit hard, with the processing of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support claims delayed. Council tax collection and other income streams are also affected, raising concerns about the authority's cash flow.
Planning, Payments and Elections All Affected
The disruption extends across nearly all council functions. Planning and licensing applications cannot be processed normally, and conveyancing searches are frozen, causing major issues for anyone trying to sell a property in the borough.
The council also missed the statutory deadline of December 1 for publishing a revised electoral register. With local elections scheduled for May, clearing the backlog of registration applications and processing postal votes is now a high priority.
While the December payroll was processed successfully, new invoices and routine payments to suppliers remain constrained. The council confirmed that some personal data was "copied and taken away" during the incident.
A Long Road to Recovery and a New Delegation
The council's recovery plan is structured in phases. The current period of "containment and stabilisation" is set to last until mid-January. From then until the summer, systems will gradually be reopened based on risk assessments, with new technical infrastructure being installed. Full operational status is not expected before the summer.
To speed up the response, the Cabinet is being asked to approve the establishment of a "general delegation" group. This body, accountable to Chief Executive Maxine Holdsworth, would have the power to procure external specialists, deploy extra staff, and prioritise which systems to restore first, avoiding delays from seeking separate approvals for every decision.
The full financial cost remains unknown but is expected to be significant. A separate budget report indicates a potential £700,000 "underachievement of savings" due to the attack, with costs to be met from existing reserves.
Leader of the Council, Elizabeth Campbell, has acknowledged that disruption may continue "for months". The council is working alongside two other impacted local authorities, Westminster City Council and Hammersmith and Fulham Council, as it navigates the complex recovery process.
