First Choice Homes Oldham hires John Southworth to rescue £3.7m scheme

First Choice Homes Oldham has handed the stalled £3.7m Shaw Street development to John Southworth Builders Ltd, roughly 17 months after the project was supposed to be finished.

The housing association terminated its contract with the original contractor, Robwood Construction Limited, in June over what it called "unacceptable delays". Robwood had been appointed in May 2022 to build 30 affordable one and two-bed flats in Royton, with completion scheduled for February 2024.

That deadline came and went. Now a second firm inherits the job.

What did the new contractor find?

John Southworth has already surveyed the building and its external areas after FCHO raised concerns about the quality of the previous work. The survey identified substantial outstanding construction work, defects requiring correction, and design elements needing further attention to meet building regulations.

Andy Ewart, FCHO's executive director of corporate services and deputy chief executive, said: "The scale of the issues discovered means the project cannot simply be restarted from where the previous contractor stopped."

He added: "The identified problems need to be corrected so that the building can be completed safely and certified appropriately."

In other words, this isn't a restart. It's a repair job with a building attached.

When will the flats finally be finished?

John Southworth will mobilise on site in the coming weeks. The project is scheduled to be finished by the end of July next year.

Ewart acknowledged the timeline has tested local patience. "We share the frustration about the length of time this development has taken but we now have a contractor, a detailed plan and visible progress will soon be seen on site," he said.

What that progress will cost remains open. Ewart said the final extra cost of the delays and additional work is not yet known, but he expects it to be a "substantial sum" — on top of the £3.7m originally budgeted.

For a 30-flat affordable scheme first tendered in 2022, that's a long way from February 2024.

The end-of-July target gives FCHO a firm date to be judged against. Whether the substantial sum behind it ever becomes a number the association publishes is another matter, and one Royton's would-be tenants may reasonably ask.