Residents’ safety the ‘priority’ for Mansfield Council amid £20m bill for fire safety issues at London building

This is the message of Andy Abrahams, Mansfield mayor, who said resolving the situation is an “incredibly important issue” for the authority.

The council owns the building on Bedford Road, Clapham, as an external investment, having bought it for £5.95m in January 2017.

It was acquired by the Mansfield Independent Forum administration led firstly by Tony Egginton and then Kate Allsop as a way of propping up council services.

A 2018 document revealed annual income from the building – which has 40 apartments across three blocks and business space on the ground floor – is more than £300,000 per year.

But concerns were revealed in 2018 after an independent assessment in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster.

It found issues “inside the walls” that would make it difficult for a fire to be contained, with each flat to be gutted so the building can be rebuilt internally.

Mr Abrahams said: “This is an incredibly important issue for the council.

“We are a responsible council that will do everything to ensure the health and safety of the residents in Lambeth is our number one priority.

“We’re going through the long and protracted journey towards trying to resolve this.”

Council papers show £18.75m has been budgeted from 2022-25 to resolve the issues, while £943,956 was spent on the property from 2018-22, for “investigation works, enhanced security and insurance”, including a 24-hour “waking watch”.

The authority insists these measures mean the building remains safe to occupy, although the London Fire Brigade issued a separate fire safety deficiency notice last year after identifying “a number of” concerns, including the absence of 60 minutes’ fire resistance protection for escape routes, deficiencies in the fire resistance of materials used in protected routes and issues with fire exits in the basement car park.

Repair work will require residents in all 40 flats to leave their homes for up to a year.

Cash used from similar external investments – including a Doncaster hotel, Manchester gym and Glasgow garage – have helped prop up council services in the past.

Mr Egginton said he “cannot recall” details of the investment, but insisted it was made to bring “secure income into the authority”.

However, Mr Abrahams says this funding model was “unsustainable”.

He said: “Because of 10 years of austerity, councils all over the country were asking how they can protect their services.

“The answer was trying to find investments so they don’t have to cut services, driven by a Government policy.

“I always thought that was an illogical way of trying to fund local government.

“Effectively, everybody all over the country is looking at someone else’s area to try to find an investment to support services in their area.

“It’s an unsustainable way of financing local government.

“When I took over, I said I would look for investment within Mansfield. This was at the same time when the Government said the same thing and stopped councils doing it.”

The authority says it is “exploring all avenues” to recoup costs incurred through this process, including any relocation fees for the residents, with work expected to start in May.