A London council is pursuing McLaren Construction over what it says is a failure to meet compliance issues at a major new-build development.
The contractor delivered the £85m mixed-use 12 Thames Road development in Barking for the local authority’s Be First regeneration arm. The scheme features 156 homes across four connected high-rise blocks, plus 17 industrial units and a 5,000 square metre commercial unit.
A report presented to the council’s cabinet in November showed that the client believes the work is not compliant with British Standards due to a lack of secondary power supply. McLaren denies this is the case.
A Barking and Dagenham Council spokesperson told Construction News this week: “The position regarding 12 Thames Road remains a live contractual and legal matter. The council and Be First are pursuing appropriate contractual and legal options in relation to the contractor responsible for the works, including potential recovery of costs.
“While full recovery of costs is not guaranteed, we are using every legal avenue available to pursue repayment.”
The development, which reached practical completion in December 2024, remains unoccupied due to concerns about the issue.
Last year’s cabinet report said: “The risk created by the lack of a totally independent secondary power supply is that, in the event of a fire occurring at the same time as a power outage to the main substation on site, there would be no power to the firefighting lifts or sprinkler system within the building,” it said.
The report said the contractor disputed the council’s position that this did not meet standards and said that in the event of a power failure in any one block, power supply would be automatically routed from another connected block.
But this is not sufficient, according to the council, because a single substation covering all blocks could fail, cutting off the whole development.
An expert witness agreed that the work was not compliant with the building contract, council officers said.
Its initial legal advice is that the contractor is in breach of contract and liable for remediation works, the report added.
However, a McLaren Construction spokesperson said: “It is clear that Thames Road was built in accordance with the regulations in place at the time and was signed off by all parties as compliant at practical completion, including the council’s own external technical advisor.”
Unsuitable sprinkler systems have also been installed within the industrial spaces on the development according to the report, although this is not blamed on the contractor, but is said to be due to a misunderstanding about what was required.
According to November’s report, the council plans to spend £3.2m on an “interim secondary power solution and upgraded sprinkler system”, so the development can be occupied.
The building remains unoccupied and interim works continue.
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Ian Weinfass