Clapham building owned by out-of-town council needs £20m in fire safety repairs

By Andrew Topping, Local Democracy Reporter

Mansfield district council expects £20m in fire safety repairs at an apartment building it owns in London to be complete by March 2025.

The authority has allocated more than £12m to the repairs to 50-52 Bedford Road in Clapham in the coming financial year and more than £6m in 2024/25, with about £1m already spent on works to the building since 2018.

It follows several fire safety defects being found inside the property during an independent assessment in 2018.

The council bought the building as an investment in 2017, in an attempt to diversify how it generated funding.

But concerns found later on included issues “inside the walls” that mean a fire would be difficult to contain and could spread across the building.

A separate review by the London Fire Brigade in 2021 found a “number of” breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

This included the absence of 60 minutes of fire safety resistance protection for escape routes in corridors, lobbies and stairs.

There were also deficiencies in the fire resistance of materials used in protected routes and entrance doors and issues with fire exits in the basement car park.

Works to repair the building will require residents in all 40 flats to leave their homes for up to a year so reconstruction works can take place.

This will allow the walls, floors and ceilings to be ripped out so the building can be rebuilt internally.

Two residents previously spoke of repeated delays leaving their lives “in limbo”, with works initially scheduled for August last year but now due to take place this May.

Now the authority has confirmed it expects the works to begin this summer and its financial papers reveal £12.153m should be spent on the works in the 2023/24 financial year.

A further £6.472m is budgeted for 2024/25, while no cash has been allocated for the 2025/26 financial year.

This is because the council expects to conclude the works during a two-year period.

In total, the work is expected to cost the authority between £19m and £20m – with this sum also including any relocation costs for the 40 flats and ground-floor lift manufacturer KONE.

A council spokesperson said: “The medium-term financial strategy has provisions to undertake appropriate remediation works in the next two financial years to the property in Bedford Road, Clapham.

“The council continues to inform residents and the business of the timetable of activity, due to begin in summer 2023, and is looking to deliver the project as planned by March 2025.

“As a responsible landlord, we have always put safety first and will continue to do so until the remedial works at the property are complete.”

The authority officially bought the building in January 2017 for £5.95m as part of its investment portfolio aimed at bringing more money in to fund frontline services.

The Harris Partnership and The Oakapple Group, the two developers behind the scheme, did not answer the Local Democracy Reporting Service’s questions when contacted last year.

Pictured top: 50-52 Bedford Road in Clapham (Picture: LDRS)