Council estates repairs went £6m over budget

Residents were faced with "shoddy" repairs on the three estates

A south London council has overspent by £6m on the redevelopment of three housing estates, reports have found.

They concluded that Southwark Council's poor management of contracts led to the chaotic refurbishment and "unacceptable" outcomes for residents living at Devon Mansions and the Kirby Estate in Bermondsey, and the Canada Estate in Rotherhithe.

A council meeting this week heard there were failures and "significant missteps" leading up to the overspend.

A Southwark Council spokesperson welcomed the reports and said what had happened was "unacceptable and fell far short of what our residents deserve".

The long-awaited investigation comes almost two years after residents first raised concerns about the cost of and delay to the works, as well as numerous poor repairs, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Residents told the council's overview and scrutiny committee in November 2023 there had been "shoddy" repair work, from poorly installed windows which did not close properly to half-finished paint jobs they were expected to foot the bill for.

The Kirby Estate was among three having repair works done

In June 2020, a contract was awarded to Durkan Limited to carry out major works at Canada Estate, including asbestos removal, front entrance door replacements and window replacements, which were to be completed over a period of 60 weeks at a cost of £4.2m.

However the project ended up taking 72 extra weeks and costs increased by more than £2.1m due to the scope of the works changing.

In April 2020, Engie Regeneration Limited was awarded a contract worth £5.6m to carry out works lasting 62 weeks at Devon Mansions including fire safety improvements and kitchen and bathroom replacements.

The cost of the major works increased by a further £4.1m with the project taking an extra 102 weeks.

A third project on the Kirby Estate also experienced significant delays, with costs increasing by £167,000.

In November 2023, a "task and finishing team" was established to carry out an internal review of the work at Devon Mansions and the Canada Estate and a second review for the Kirby Estate.

Sam Dalton told this week's meeting: "Since we have become the ward councillors for London Bridge and West Bermondsey, a year and a half before that we had gained a clear picture of just how catastrophic the failings have been and just how much residents had been let down.

"[Residents] were spending countless online major works meetings where [they] simply weren't getting the answers and therefore initiating the investigation seemed the only solution to us."

Emily Hickson, who represents the same ward, said council officers did not understand nor investigate concerns raised by residents.

Hakeem Osinaike, the council's strategic director of housing, apologised to residents across the three estates and said although most of the issues had been addressed, it did not take away the fact that the council should have done better in the first place.

"I have been very, very clear to my colleagues that there will be a genuine explanation of what went wrong and lessons learned to ensure the mistakes found are never repeated," he said.