A new developer has been appointed to complete a major Nottingham council housing project after the company previously working on it collapsed. The Eastglade Primary and Nursery School closed in 2007 and plans were first revealed in 2019 to build 106 council houses on the Top Valley site.
The principal contractor was Robert Woodhead Limited, but the company announced last September that it had entered into voluntary liquidation, triggering mass redundancies. Nottingham City Council says 53 of the houses had been completed when Robert Woodhead informed the authority of its collapse on September 14.
Work has been underway since then to find a new developer and, in a delegated decision published on February 16, Nottingham City Council says the Lovell Partnership have been appointed to complete the Eastglade project. The council says one of the reasons that Lovell has been chosen is because it is already working on another project nearby.
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Lovell started work last summer on the building of 130 council houses off Beckhampton Road in Bestwood. Now, Nottingham City Council says the Lovell Partnership will begin work on completing the Eastglade site, too.
The company were first approached on October 11 and, in its delegated decision report, Nottingham City Council says: "The quotation received from Lovell Partnership was considered appropriate given the situation (i.e. completing another contractor's work) and economic situation/price inflation." The council also says that the company had the capacity to "undertake the work relatively quickly in order to expedite homes being available for new tenants".
The Eastglade project was originally set to be finished by the spring and, although the delegated decision report includes no details on a new timeframe, Nottingham City Homes previously said there would be a "slight delay" on the project after Robert Woodhead's collapse. Nottingham City Council is currently negotiating transfer arrangements to bring Nottingham City Homes in-house, a process set to be completed by March.
The Lovell Partnership was the only company contacted about continuing the Eastglade project, as Nottingham City Council says that carrying out a full tendering process would have been a "larger, more complex and more time consuming exercise, potentially meaning increased tender price, as well as ongoing security costs for the inactive site".
Although the council says the cost of the project is now higher than originally forecast, it is reportedly still within the originally approved budget. Robert Woodhead Limited said it had gone into voluntary liquidation due to price increases throughout the supply chain.
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