Camden struggles to salvage estate refurbishment from rejected PFI deal

Camden council’s plans to refurbish tower blocks on the Chalcot estate were vetoed by the Treasury in February after the council asked for £119m (HT 25 February, page 9). The government had originally given the project £55m of PFI credit.

The council was also faulted for having only one bidder for the work – the government prefers more competition.

Now the council and the consortium that was to have carried out the deal, Partners for Improvement in Camden, are in talks about whether a cut-down version of the refurbishment deal could work.

The ODPM has said that Camden can still use the £55m of PFI credits it was given if it can make the deal work using the PFI procurement method.

Neil Litherland, Camden’s director of housing, said the deal was far from complete. “Our initial assessment was it would be very difficult. But we seem to be making progress. We have told residents we would do what we could with the £55m but we did not want to raise false hopes.”

Given Camden is a three-star council, the government should just give them the money

Jeff Zitron, Tribal HCH

Some parts of the original scheme are likely to go by the wayside on the new tight budget. Plans to create 12 new homes on the site may be shelved and instead of cladding the tower blocks to stop water leaking into the buildings, a cheaper technique may be used. The contract length could be cut from 30 years to about 20. However, the scheme will still meet the decent homes standard.

Litherland added that the council still had to approach residents for their views once any plans were finalised.

Jeff Zitron, a director at consultant Tribal HCH, said the saga showed PFI was not right for refurbishment schemes. He added: “Given Camden is a three-star local authority, the government should just give them the money to do Chalcot.”