Greenwich Council is to pay an extra £11 million to finish a number of its home-building projects after a sub-contractor went bust earlier this year.
A controversial plan for 24 council flats in Plumstead – one likened to a “ghetto” by its local councillor – also appears to have been shelved to free up the funds for this, but the town hall will not confirm this or say why.
Modpods International, which made modular housing, had been appointed by Elkins, the council’s main contractor, to work on new homes at Sam Manners House in east Greenwich and at the Brook Estate in Kidbrooke.
But Modpods went bust in the summer, with the loss of 122 jobs and temporarily halting work on the projects.
Greenwich Council’s cabinet agreed on December 4 to pay Elkins another £11 million to finish work on a number of sites, including at Sam Manners and the Brook Estate.
The cabinet also agreed to remove a plan to build homes on the Barnfield Estate in Plumstead from phase one of the Greenwich Builds programme. Local councillor Ivis Williams, who represents Shooters Hill, said the planned block on Herbert Road, a street blighted by antisocial behaviour, had “the feel of a ghetto look”.
Labour councillor Gary Dillion, the chair of planning, also criticised the scheme, but said his decision to back it was influenced by the desperate need for council housing. Greenwich Council would not say whether it was shelved to free up the £11 million to finish the modular projects.
The session – under the agenda title “Greenwich Builds Phase 1 Update” – was held in secret to protect Elkins’ right to confidentiality, with video of the meeting skipping to council leader Anthony Okereke thanking the cabinet for a “robust discussion”. The decision on the £11 million and the Barnfield site was made public on the council’s website soon after.
However, after The Greenwich Wire contacted both the council and Elkins last Tuesday to ask about the issue and to say that we were publishing a story on the matter, the decision was deleted from the website, replaced with a boilerplate notice about commercial confidentiality.
The council declined to answer our questions, so we are unable to confirm why Elkins was paid an extra £11 million to finish the projects, which also include a block on Well Hall Road in Eltham where neighbours have raised questions about a lack of progress. However, there is enough publicly-available information available to demonstrate the issues facing the unfinished schemes.
Modular construction – a modern form of prefabs – had been hailed as a quick and easy way for the council to chip away at its 28,100-strong waiting list. In particular, Modpods’ blocks were said to be extremely energy-efficient – ideal for tenants on tight budgets.
But the industry has been beset by financial issues, affecting councils, builders and the families waiting for new homes. In Greenwich’s case, traditionally-built homes on Kidbrooke Park Road have been erected faster than the modular ones just half a mile away on the Brook Estate, which were given planning permission nearly four years ago.
In Elkins’ last set of financial results, filed a year ago, it referred to “contractual issues” between it and Greenwich Council on the Well Hall Road block caused by problems at another modular building supplier, but hoping that work would be finished by March – something that did not happen.
It also said that Modpods had “failed to meet any contract or target dates” for Sam Manners House or the Brook Estate, and said that it hoped to resolve the situation in the coming year.
The family-run firm, which has traded for 60 years and is based in South Bermondsey, has been frank about the problems caused by Modpods’ collapse. Elkins told the trade website Inside Housing in August that it had provided assistance to Modpods while it was in trouble and found the situation “disappointing and challenging”.
When The Greenwich Wire visited the Brook Estate and Well Hall Road sites on Wednesday, teams were on site, with one part of a modular home being lowered into position off Rochester Way by a giant crane. Another section of the Brook Estate development, off Halsbrook Road, looked almost ready for occupation with the lights on in a fitted-out home.
A spokesperson for Elkins told The Greenwich Wire on Friday: “In the wake of Modpods’ administration, Elkins have been working to find solutions for completing the projects which Modpods were a supplier for, as expediently as possible. Works have continued to the affected sites with one due to be finished imminently.
“As this is an ongoing process, we are not in a position to provide any more information at this time.”
Greenwich Council’s silence also means we cannot confirm whether the 24 flats on Herbert Road will be built after all – despite the clear public interest that residents in one of the borough’s most troubled areas will have in knowing the future plans for their neighbourhood.
The Greenwich Builds project has two phases – one of about 750 homes, launched by Okereke’s predecessor Danny Thorpe in 2018, and the other of 1,000, so the project could re-emerge in the second phase.
It is the second time in a month that the Labour-run council has tried to keep quiet decisions made at its cabinet meetings that affect residents.
Just three weeks ago the same cabinet voted to sell the Greenwich Equestrian Centre, built for the council as part of its Olympic legacy, along with a house in Shooters Hill that the Shrewsbury House community centre had been hoping to take on for its own use.
Users and neighbours were not consulted, and the agenda item was buried under the bland title “Asset Review Further Outcomes”, with the issue dealt with in under a minute with no discussion. The decision has been called in by two Conservative councillors and will be reviewed at a scrutiny meeting on January 8.
Follow The Greenwich Wire on Bluesky, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Threads. You can also sign up for WhatsApp alerts – or subscribe to our emails through the blue box above.
You must be logged in to post a comment.