Urban Splash Ordered to Pay £46.5m for Manchester Fire Repairs

Urban Splash and four associated businesses must pay £46.5m towards fire safety repairs at seven Manchester apartment blocks. The firms have until 3 December to pay, following a Government legal battle to recover taxpayers' money spent fixing the former Urban Splash developments.

The First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) rejected arguments that public funding had driven unnecessarily expensive repairs. But it cut the publicly funded element of the claim by 10%, reflecting Government failings that contributed to the building safety crisis.

Which buildings are covered?

The case covers Burton Place, Chips, Moho, The Box Works and Christabel, Emmeline and Sylvia houses. All were developed between around 2000 and 2008. Investigations after the Grenfell fire uncovered combustible materials, ineffective cavity barriers (strips that stop fire spreading inside wall cavities), inadequate fire-stopping and compartmentation failures.

By the time defects emerged, the buildings had passed out of Urban Splash's ownership. Around £51.5m was paid or committed through the Building Safety Fund (the Government scheme financing cladding and fire-safety remediation) to tackle the defects.

What did Urban Splash contest?

Urban Splash challenged the scale and cost of the repairs. At Burton Place, an initial estimate of around £9m grew to almost £23m. Funding approval for Moho rose from £9.9m to more than £18m.

The tribunal found the increases were principally explained by further defects exposed during investigations and opening-up works. It concluded that no technically viable and materially cheaper alternative had been established.

"The evidence therefore did not support the contention that public funding had produced 'gold-plated' remediation rather than reasonable responses to the defects encountered."

Who pays what?

The orders extend beyond the original developer, Urban Splash Limited, to:

• Urban Splash Developments Limited
• Urban Splash Group Holdings Limited
• Urban Splash Work Limited
• Stubbs Mill LLP

All five are jointly and severally liable. Most of the money will repay Government funding, with £741,594 payable directly to Moho's management company.

A separate £600,000 settlement by Shed KM Holding Limited and Shed KM Limited was credited against the Moho claim. Claims against two family investment companies and two residential fund entities were dismissed.

Is this part of a wider pattern?

Yes. The ruling follows an earlier Government victory against Hollybrook, which was ordered to pay £3.68m towards publicly funded repairs at Hallings Wharf Studios in east London.

The Urban Splash judgment, at more than twelve times that amount, signals the scale of recovery the Government can now pursue from developers behind defective high-rise stock — and it hands leaseholders and taxpayers a precedent that cost-inflation arguments alone won't derail claims.