Fire safety repairs at Mansfield Council-owned London apartments expected to be complete by March 2025

The authority has allocated more than £12m to the repairs 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, at 50-52 Bedford Road, Clapham, 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” other issues, including the absence of 60 minutes of fire safety resistance protection for escape routes in corridors, lobbies and stairs, deficiencies in the fire resistance of materials used in protected routes and entrance doors, and issues with fire exits in the basement car park.

Repairs will require residents in all 40 flats to leave their homes for up to a year, so walls, floors and ceilings can be ripped out for the building to be rebuilt internally.

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 2023/24 and £6.472m in 2024/25, when it expects to complete the work.

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

A council spokesman said: “The medium-term financial strategy has provisions to undertake appropriate remediation works in the next two financial years to the property on 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 decision was approved in October 2014 under Mansfield Independent Forum mayor Tony Egginton, but the purchase did not become official until the tenure of his successor Kate Allsop.

Both mayors previously defended the decision to buy the property, saying it came at a time of significant budgetary pressure fuelled by Government cuts and austerity.

And in November, Andy Abrahams, who succeeded Ms Allsop in 2019, admitted paying for the repair works is affecting the council’s ability to invest in the town.

He said: “When we think about the whole of the budget, it is one of the factors affecting our overall [financial] ability.

“It’s cutting back on our opportunity to invest within our town, but we are still making sure we look after the people [in the building].”