Lend Lease takes action over athletes' village delays

Athletes’ village construction manager Lend Lease has issued contractor Galliford Try with a non-completion notice for the last phase of the £700m London 2012 project.

In a letter seen by Building dated Monday (5 December) sent by Galliford Try to one of its subcontractors on the scheme, the contractor claims Lend Lease has made a “clear statement” it will pursue damages from the firm arising from the alleged non-completion.

Galliford Try is constructing the final two plots of the village, N13 and N26, which together are worth £80m and represent 14 blocks and 423 units according to construction data company Barbour ABI.

Sources close to the project confirmed the original deadline for Lend Lease to hand over the flats to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) had been postponed from 31 October to 12 December. It is understood the revised deadline will be met.

The news came as the ODA again trumpeted progress on the scheme and gave media tours of some of the complete but unfurnished apartment blocks.
Qatari Diar and Delancey, the owners of the athletes’ village after the Games, also announced this week that the 2,800-home complex will be re-named “East Village” and will be home to 6,000 people from 2013.

A spokesperson for the ODA said: “The Olympic village remains on track to be completed and transferred to the London Organising Committee in January. It is not for the ODA to comment on commercial matters between contractors and their subcontractors.”

In its letter, Galliford Try stated its intention “to recover and deduct” monies from the subcontractor arising from its alleged failure to complete subcontract works and other alleged “snags and defects”.

Building reported in October that Galliford Try was in talks with three of its subcontractors - Prater, MPG and Reddington - over financial disputes arising from delays on the project. None of Galliford Try’s subcontractors were available for comment.

Galliford Try and Lend Lease referred Building’s enquiries to the ODA.

• A huge increase in security for the Olympics means the £9.3bn project is still in danger of busting its budget, the National Audit Office announced on Tuesday. However, the NAO reported continued good progress on the construction side, with the ODA on course to save more than 11% on the original £8.1bn build budget.