Hackney hires Wates on £30 million deal to restart Britannia homes stalled by Ardmore collapse

The council approved the deal on Nov. 2, the Evening Standard reported. It covers urgent work to make the buildings watertight, the purchase of critical materials and site management. Cabinet member Alastair Binnie-Lubbock said a second contract for internal works and landscaping will follow and absorb this one.

The homes, in towers of as many as 25 storeys at Shoreditch Park, are the last phase of the Britannia project, which already produced a leisure centre and a secondary school. The phase includes 51 homes for social rent, 30 for shared ownership and 290 for sale. The flats were due by the end of 2026.

Ardmore Construction Group entered administration on June 11 after the High Court made a building liability order holding group companies responsible for £14.9 million in old cladding claims. The council said the ruling had nothing to do with Britannia. It had let Ardmore move the contract from Ardmore Construction Ltd to the parent group in 2023 without a cabinet vote, and when it looked for a replacement it approached 14 contractors, finding firms wary of someone else's unfinished work, the Hackney Citizen reported.

Costs keep rising. Phase 2b was approved in 2023 at £153.9 million. The council now says it will likely exceed the approved £196.8 million, and it has not disclosed the revised budget its cabinet signed off in July. Outgoing housing director Rickardo Hyatt said the stoppage had cost the council money ever since Ardmore left the site. In September, council reports estimated about six months of site work once building resumes.