Manchester City Council has confirmed its Town Hall restoration project will cost an additional £95 million, increasing the total budget to £524.8 million.
The project was expected to be completed by August 2026. However, this has now been pushed back to spring 2027 as part of a revised timetable.
In 2019, Lendlease won the contract to refurbish the Grade I-listed building. Subsequently, the UK construction arm of the business was sold to Atlas Holdings and renamed Bovis Construction.
The contractor has been tasked with the refurbishment and partial restoration of the Town Hall building, as well as the refurbishment of more than 12,000 sq m of external space, including Albert Square.
According to the latest update from the council, the major overspend and delayed schedule stem from a “unique combination” of external and project-specific pressures.
“Wider factors have ranged from disruption caused by the covid pandemic and a volatile economic climate, influenced by external factors such as the war in Ukraine, to unprecedented materials and labour cost inflation in the construction industry,” the update stated.
“More directly, project-related factors include a shortage of specialist labour capacity in the supply chain, issues with the supply of materials (which under strict heritage rules need to closely match those used in the original construction) and ongoing discovery of further construction challenges, all of which unavoidably cause delays and associated costs.”
The council added that these project-specific challenges range from minor obstructions and quirks from the original Victorian build all the way through to structural issues that require design solutions before work can continue.
Navigating a ‘stream of challenges’
Due to the complexity of the project, many of the challenges are interdependent, so a delay to one element of work can have a significant knock-on impact. According to the council, each of these pressures has contributed to the cumulative cost and time pressures.
With most of the external work now complete, the focus of the project is moving to the interior restoration of the Town Hall.
Deputy council leader Garry Bridges acknowledged that the “extraordinarily complicated” project has been beset by a “stream of challenges”.
“Like everyone, we have been frustrated by the increased time and cost involved. But if we had not acted decisively to invest in the future of this Victorian masterpiece, many parts of which were reaching the end of their natural lifespans, we would have seen it become unusable and obsolete,” Bridges added.
“We’re glad that we’re now on a confident path to completion in spring 2027, in time for the 150th anniversary of its original opening. The results of the project will be there for people to appreciate and enjoy for the next 100 years.”
