The Victorian villa at 1 Morland Gardens, currently the “Brent Start” college. (Photo by Irina Porter)
Guest post by Philip Grant (in a personal capacity)
Over the past eighteen months, I’ve written a number of guest posts about Brent’s plans to demolish “Altamira”, this beautiful locally listed Victorian villa in Stonebridge, in order to redevelop the site. In June, I reported that their plans had been delayed, because Council officers had not carried out legal requirements, to build out over the highway and community garden in front of the property, which they’d been advised (in December 2018!) were necessary.
On 11 August 2021, notice was given of a Key Decision, made by the Strategic Director (Regeneration and Environment). Authority was given (subject to call-in) to re-tender for the Design & Build Contract for 1 Morland Gardens.
I’m not sure what the “design” side of this is about, as it was a very detailed design which was approved by Brent’s Planning Committee (despite strong grounds for objection to the proposed scheme) a year ago! The design, by architects Curl la Tourelle Head, even won an award in September 2020 (after being nominated for it by Brent Council).
The award-winning design for the new 1 Morland Gardens building (with an added observation).
The Report on which the Key Decision was based makes interesting reading. The reason why Brent’s Property and Assets team need authority to re-tender for the contract is because they received no bids, after they invited tenders in February 2021 (via a one-stage mini-competition under the Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) Contractor Framework agreement). Following feedback from potential contractors, they have now recommended ‘re-use of the existing NHG framework and re-tender under a two-stage D&B contract.’
The first stage would be a Pre-Construction Services Agreement (“PCSA”), under which the contractor would design the project, and at the same time come up with an overall fixed price for which they would carry out the whole construction project. If that price is within the Council’s budget for the project, the second (build) stage would be awarded to them, to carry out the work.
This approach does come with some risks. The report doesn’t mention the risk that none of the contractors invited to bid might decline to do so. It does say: ‘The main risk of a two-stage D&B process is that the contractor may not stay within the budget so the Council has to re-procure an alternative contractor.’ But if the first contractor can’t build what the Council wants for the price they are prepared to pay, what chance is there of finding another contractor who will?
How much is the budget? The Report says: ‘The Morland Gardens project budget was approved by Cabinet on 14 January 2020. The total project budget is £43m of which £41.5m was assigned for the redevelopment of the Morland Gardens site…. The pre-tender estimate for the redevelopment works of £39,820,380 is within this budget.’
But when Cabinet approved the scheme in January 2020, the Report to that meeting said: ‘Current estimates of build cost (excluding decant) are up to £42m.’ Have building costs gone down, not up in the past 20 months?*
One indication is that the estimated cost (in the January 2020 Report to Cabinet) of the building work needed at the Stonebridge Annexe, to prepare it as a temporary home for Brent Start while the redevelopment is carried out, was £500k. When the contract for that work was awarded towards the end of 2020, the cost had risen to £1.2m.
When Brent’s Cabinet approved the 1 Morland Gardens project in January 2020, they were told that work was likely to begin on site in September 2020, and that work should be completed by July 2022. Now, IF any acceptable bid is received under the re-tender exercise, the first stage of a contract is due to begin in November 2021.
If that goes successfully, and a price within budget is proposed by May 2022, work on site is expected to begin in July 2022, and take two years to complete. So, that’s when Brent’s redevelopment might happen.
Although, given Brent’s history of errors over this project since 2018, it might not.
Philip Grant.
*[Forecasts published by the RICS suggest a rise in tender prices of around 6.5% between the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2022.]
