The split of powers and functions meant that the Greater London Council was responsible for "wide area" services such as fire, ambulance, flood prevention, and refuse disposal; with the boroughs (including Kensington and Chelsea) responsible for "personal" services such as social care, libraries, cemeteries and refuse collection.

It is a local education authority and is also responsible for council housing, social services, libraries, waste collection and disposal, traffic, and most roads and environmental health.

[26] In 1982 the then leader of the council, Nicholas Freeman, provoked a storm of opposition amongst people of all political persuasions by ordering the overnight destruction of Kensington's Old Town Hall, which had been completed in 1880.

Starting in the early hours of Saturday 12 June, two days after the planning appeal was dismissed, the façade of the Old Town Hall was demolished.

[27][28] The Royal Fine Art Commission condemned the action as "official vandalism... decided upon covertly, implemented without warning and timed deliberately to thwart known opposition".

[25] On 14 June 2017, a major fire destroyed the council-owned, 24-storey Grenfell Tower, a public housing building in the mainly working-class area of North Kensington, causing 72 deaths.

[34][35] On 21 June, the council chief executive Nicholas Holgate resigned amid criticism over the borough's response to the fire.

[36] The Prime Minister Theresa May commented that the council "couldn't cope" in the response to the fire, and that it "was right" that the chief executive had resigned.

[37] The Conservative leader of the council, Nicholas Paget-Brown, initially resisted calls to resign,[34] but announced on 30 June that he would step down.