India Buildings has been closed for more than three weeks due to severe flooding in its basement.
The building officially opened just three months ago after a problematic four year refurbishment project, costing more than £38m. The fault is thought to have originated in the hot water system and is yet to be resolved.
For a fourth week running, core staff have been relocated to St John’s House, Bootle, while others have been told to work from home. Staff who have left personal items inside the building are allowed to enter between 9am and midday, Monday to Friday.
READ MORE: Exclusive first look inside stunning renovated India Buildings
The building’s owner, Legal and General Investment Management Ltd (LGIM), have engaged contractors to provide detailed plans and timescales to bring the building back into use. They were approached for comment but are unable to provide any more information at this stage.
Grade-II* listed India Buildings is one of HMRC’s 13 new regional ‘supercentres’ and is home to 5,000 civil servants. The building has been occupied since August 2021, with the renovated building officially opened in May 2022
The refurbishment project took over four years to compete, twice as long as originally planned. Work was delayed on two separate occasions in 2019, first when 400 tonnes of harmful asbestos were discovered, and again when large areas of the ceilings were found to be structurally unsound.
LGIM paid £125m for the building in 2017, the highest price ever paid for a single office building in Liverpool. The sale went ahead only after HMRC confirmed it would take a 25-year lease on the 270,000 square foot building, at a reported price of £18.50 per square foot.
The initial refurbishment contract with building firm Styles and Wood was terminated in August 2019. The firm claimed the termination was wrongful and proposed to take legal action but went bust in February 2020 owing £103m. Their replacement, Caddick Construction, held the refurbishment contract for just three months before being replaced by Overbury in December 2020.
A spokesperson from HMRC said: “Investigations are ongoing at India Buildings in Liverpool following a flood in the basement last month. The building remains closed, and staff are either working from St John’s House in Bootle or from home.
“There is no damage to any of the building’s heritage features and we are working with our landlord and contractors to reopen the building as quickly as possible.”
The new HMRC ‘supercentres’ are to replace 180 regional offices throughout the country. The North-West is the only region to have two supercentres, one in Liverpool and one in Manchester.
READ MORE:
- Carer who helped herself to cash from dementia patient, 93, won't go to jail
- 'Sleepy' village in shadow of nuclear plant with no shop or pub
- Man swaps high life for 'charming' seaside town after finding love
- Four jobs, paying up to £30,000, going in Merseyside's 'most beautiful' village
- 'I was weighed down by a secret for 57 years - that's too much for a child'
