The council has confirmed that the restoration of Manchester Town Hall will cost an additional £76 million more than initially projected.
The grade-I listed Town Hall, which has been undergoing extensive refurbishment since 2018, was originally slated for completion this year. However, due to delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and unforeseen complications, the deadline has been pushed back to 2026.
Council leaders now estimate approximately two years' worth of work remains on the project, with the expectation that progress will accelerate, aiming for a reopening in July 2026. Despite this, understands that further funding may be required as the new budget reaches £429.8m.
Deputy council leader Garry Bridges, who is overseeing the project, commented: "It's the largest heritage project of this scale in the country, and with that brings a lot of complications," He added: "Throughout the whole time we've done work, there's been a pandemic, there has been inflation after Ukraine. But on top of that, the nature of the specialist work going on in that building is really complex."
Specifically, around £1.6m worth of issues have been identified within the building's roof, only becoming apparent once the outer layers of the structure were removed.
Council leaders have revealed that at least one new issue has been discovered weekly since last summer, often requiring bespoke engineering solutions as standard parts and materials are insufficient to restore the building to grade-I status.
The delays also allow contractors to seek compensation from the council, arguing that they have incurred additional costs due to equipment hire and lost opportunities for work elsewhere due to project overruns. The council is currently 'robustly negotiating 80 such claims to ensure a fair outcome'.
This is not the first time a major council building project has exceeded its budget in recent years. Aviva Studios, which opened last year, was the first. Initially, in 2017, it had a budget of £110m. However, earlier this year, the final bill was calculated at £241m.
Despite the lack of similarities between the two projects, the repeated overspending raises questions about the council's financial prudence. While Coun Bridges stated it was 'hard to actually judge the Town Hall against another project in terms of its costs, because it is so specialist', the council 'will look at ways we can learn lessons' from both instances.
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