Image: Chalcots Estate (Rydon)
Camden Council in London is set to take legal action against the companies that refurbished a housing estate that it evacuated following the Grenfell Tower disaster.
The council is understood to have spent millions of pounds on the evacuation of four buildings involving around 3,000 people following cladding safety tests in June 2017.
It claimed the external cladding failed the tests and multiple other internal fire safety failures were discovered.
Chalcots was refurbished between 2006 and 2009 by Partners for Improvement in Camden (PFIC), which has since entered liquidation.
One of the subcontractors working for PFIC on the refurbishment of Chalcots as part of a £66m deal was Rydon, which also worked on Grenfell Tower.
In a letter to residents of the estate last week, councillor Georgia Gould, leader of Camden Council, said: “The PFI have let us all down. In the next few weeks we will, in accordance with the terms of the contract, be taking the final steps in terminating the PFI agreement.
“We will be beginning the process of taking legal action against the sub-contractors to recover the costs we have already spent. We are clear that our residents have been let down and we will be taking steps to hold the parties responsible to recover our losses.”
The council has secured £80m from the government which will pay for the recladding and new curtain wall at the buildings on the estate, as well as boosting a wider safety programme.
Rydon and PFIC’s liquidator Begbies Traynor have been contact for comment.
