Council's bill for Nova House cladding works could hit £28.4 million

The bill to remove unsafe cladding and repair a seven-storey apartment block in Slough town centre has risen to almost £30million.

Nova House, in Buckingham Gardens, failed a Government cladding safety test in June 2017 in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster in London.

Slough Borough Council bought the company that owns the freehold to the site – Ground Rents Estates 5 Limited (GRE5) – and initially hoped to remove the cladding and repair the building for £10million.

But costs have since spiralled after the discovery of significant defects to the building with the project now expected to cost £28.4million.

Members of Slough Borough Council’s cabinet met on Monday to discuss approving a further loan of £5million to continue the major repair works at the ill-fated apartment block.

Pat Hayes, the council’s executive director of property and housing, said: “The situation effectively is the works have taken longer than planned and have cost more than originally planned when the council acquired the site.”

He added: “This is partly due to the structural nature of the building.

“Once the cladding was removed it became apparent that the central spine of the building wasn’t strong enough to take the weight of the replacement cladding and the balconies being put back on.

“The overall cost of works have gone up quite significantly. What was originally envisaged as a £9million project just to replace the cladding is now significantly more expensive.”

Council leader James Swindlehurst said taking over the building was ‘morally the right thing to do’ back in 2017.

But he maintained that he had warned cabinet members of potential spiralling costs when the council bought the freehold to the site six years ago.

He added: “There are lengthy cabinet minutes when I came and spoke to the previous cabinet and said I didn’t think we should do this and we’d rue the day we did because it would cost us a bloody sight more than we thought.

“Perhaps rather unsurprisingly we are in that place.”

The meeting heard the council continues to be involved in legal action to recover its costs from the insurers of Nova House’s original contractors.

Councillors agreed to approve a further £5million to continue repairs to the building while legal discussions continue.