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Camden Council submits £130m claim against contractors over Chalcots Estate
Camden Council has submitted a legal claim totalling £130m against contractors, including the construction firm behind the Grenfell Tower refurbishment, to recover costs it incurred as a result of fire safety failings and the installation of Grenfell-style cladding at the Chalcots Estate.
The claim is against the consortium Partners for Improvement in Camden (PFIC) and its principal subcontractors Faithful + Gould, United Living South and Rydon – the Grenfell Tower contractor. PFIC is now in liquidation.
Camden Council will seek to recover costs in relation to the evacuation of Chalcots residents, the employment of fire marshals, and repairs to make good inadequate internal fire stopping and fire doors, and the removal of aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding from the blocks’ exterior.
The council said it is “clear about where responsibility lies” for the defects, following a two-year examination of “historical agreements, contractual responsibilities and works completed” during the period it was under contract with PFIC.
Residents of the Chalcots Estate were evacuated shortly after the Grenfell fire in 2017, when the council discovered combustible cladding on the buildings, despite the council claiming to have ordered a more fire-resistant material.
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PFIC was responsible for the 2006 refurbishment works which saw Grenfell-style cladding installed on the five tower blocks on Swiss Cottage Estate.
It also handled repairs, heating and maintenance on the estate through a number of subcontractors, with a £150m deal due to run until 2021. It went into liquidation last year, with Camden Council taking the maintenance of the development back in-house.
In October last year, the council secured £80m from the government to refund the replacement of cladding on the Chalcots Estate.
If successful in its claim, the council does not expect it will have to pay back this funding, as it does not cover all aspects of the cladding replacement work.
While the claims are processed, fire remediation work on the Chalcots Estate will continue with the council’s principal contractor, Wates.
A Camden Council spokesperson said: “We were let down by PFIC, Rydon and other contractors.
“The PFI [private finance initiative] agreement for refurbishment and maintenance of the Chalcots Estate was entered into in good faith and fundamental to this was our expectation that the Chalcots towers would be safe for our residents.
“We should not have been put in a position where we were left with no option but to evacuate residents from their homes on a Friday night.
“Our absolute priority is the safety of our residents, so upon discovering serious deficiencies in the work and materials used by our contractors, we stepped in with new contractors to complete works that would allow Chalcots residents to start to return safely to their homes within four weeks and within six months had fully removed cladding from the towers.
“The costs of the supporting residents during the evacuation and level of work required at the Chalcots made a major impact on our reserves. Clearly, it would not be right for residents and, by extension, the public purse to foot the bill for what has been a private contractor failure.”
Faithful + Gould and Rydon declined to comment.
United Living South has been approached for comment.
