London’s Olympic Village faces £432m fire safety bill after new defects uncovered

However, the company’s directors have identified “alternative routes” by which they expect the funds can be raised “as and when they are needed”.

Recovery would be made from third parties, including the original developer, freeholders, other landlords and potentially also the contractors.

The original developer, Stratford Village Development Partnership, is a subsidiary of build-to-rent operator Get Living, which has assets of more than £2.6bn.

Rick de Blaby, chief executive of Get Living, said internal wall issues created risks that “fire could spread from one apartment to another”.

However, he said all homes were safe to live in, with mitigation measures such as waking watches, alarms and sprinklers, and that the size of the provision set by EVML’s auditor and board was “in our view, vastly overstated”.

As the freeholder, Mr De Blaby accepted that Get Living will have to shoulder some costs. He said the company would make a provision in its next annual report. Get Living can also seek recoveries from third parties.

EVML reported a surplus of £20,441 for the financial year.

A spokesperson for Get Living said: “Our priority remains the safety of all residents at East Village and progressing work to fix the faulty construction work carried out by the government-appointed contractors as quickly as possible.

“The provision of £433m in EVML’s financial statements for fire safety works is not a Get Living provision, however it provides an indication of the sheer scale of the problem at East Village. Like many other building owners across the country, we are in the difficult position of fixing building safety issues that we inherited but had no role in designing or building.

“As such, we are pursuing the government-appointed contractors for their role in delivering faulty buildings and are in active discussions with the government to ensure the further works required at East Village progress as quickly and safely as possible.

“East Village is the former athletes’ village for the 2012 London Olympic Games and was built by the government’s Olympic Delivery Authority and its contractors, who then converted the buildings into homes before selling the development to our original investors. Our investigations found the works delivered by these parties to be faulty and require extensive remediation.

“Remediation works have been progressing since 2020, including the removal of all ACM [aluminium composite material cladding] from external walls and the full remediation of the five most affected buildings, and there is a plan in place for EVML to deliver the remaining programme.

“In the meantime, an independent fire assessor has confirmed that all homes in East Village remain safe to occupy.”

Triathlon Homes, the housing association which runs 1,400 affordable homes in East Village, said it was “pleased that EVML recognises the scale and cost of the remediation required”.

It continued: “We now need the remediation to be completed as quickly as possible. Our residents need assurances that any ongoing legal action by the relevant parties will not delay the works any further. They have waited long enough.”

EVML’s two biggest shareholders, Get Living and Triathlon, are currently locked in a legal battle over who should pay for fire safety fixes in a part of East Village.

Last year, a landmark tribunal ruling ordered Get Living to pay £18m towards fixing defective cladding on five buildings on the estate. Get Living appealed, arguing that the decision was “not just and equitable”, in part because it had not built the blocks.

Last month, housing secretary Angela Rayner intervened in Get Living’s appeal hearing, arguing that the Building Safety Act was designed to issue retrospective bills for costs incurred before it came into force.

Around 200 leaseholders across East Village have been stuck, unable to sell the equity in their shared ownership properties, since September 2020, when defects were first uncovered.