'No firm date' on fire safety work to fix Mansfield's London apartment block

The repairs on the flats on Bedford Road, Clapham, were originally estimated to cost the authority about £20m.

Residents live in the flats, and won’t be moved out for remediation work until a plan is in place.

The Labour-run authority says it doesn’t know whether the work will cost more or less than originally budgeted.

It is currently working with contractor Wilmot Dixon to develop a project plan.

Once this is agreed, the authority will apply for Building Regulation from Lambeth Council, which oversees the area where the building sits.

It was confirmed earlier this month that Mansfield Council plans to launch legal action to recover the costs of the work.

Elected Mayor Andy Abrahams (Lab) took the decision under emergency powers due to time sensitivity.

Nearly all councillors backed him at a recent full council meeting, with Councillor June Stendall (Ind) saying it was “about time” legal action was launched.

The target hasn’t been named in public reports, and the building’s developer Oakapple went into voluntary liquidation in 2017.

Serious fire issues at the Clapham building were found in 2018 by an independent assessment in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire disaster, which led to new fire safety regulations.

The London Fire Brigade also found other issues, including the lack of 60 minutes of fire safety resistance protection for escape routes in corridors, lobbies and stairs.

The council previously forecast that it would spend approximately £19.691m between 2018 and 2025 to fix the issues.

This included £4.98m allocated in the 2022 to 2023 budget, with £7.296m budgeted for 2023/24 and a further £6.472m in 2024/25.

The local authority previously said it bought the property as an investment to ensure revenue while council funding was uncertain.

The building is also home to international lift engineering firm KONE, which rents business space on the ground floor.

In a statement today, a council spokesperson said: “The council doesn’t have a firm date [for when the work will start].

“However, we are working very closely with a national contractor on a project plan to reach an agreed date.

“The arrangement we are developing with the contractor includes elements of the contractor’s design.

“Only once the design is agreed upon can Building Regulation approval be applied for.

“As such no, an application hasn’t been submitted as yet.

“The original budget was and is just that – a budget.

“We have not been able to ascertain costs up until recently when we began to work with the national contractor.

“Part of the work we are undertaking at present is project costings.”

The authority had previously applied for building control to get the works started, but this was rejected by Lambeth Council in summer 2022.

No documents were published with this application, though the Lambeth authority said at the time this was because the application didn’t outline how building regulations would be met.