Council confirms Manchester Town Hall restoration is £76m overbudget

The project is also overrunning by about 2 years

Author: Ethan Davies, LDRS Reporter and Nathan MarshPublished 2nd Oct 2024

The restoration of Manchester Town Hall will cost at least £76 million more than first planned, the council has confirmed.

The grade-I listed Town Hall has been closed since 2018 for a huge refurbishment, which was initially expected to be completed this year. However, that deadline slipped back to 2026 as the Covid-19 pandemic and unforeseen issues created delays in the project.

Now, bosses say they believe there is roughly around two years’ of work to complete, but they are confident progress will speed up — and the Town Hall will reopen in July 2026. However, the LDRS understands they cannot rule out needing more cash as the new budget hits £429.8m.

“It’s the largest heritage project of this scale in the country, and with that brings a lot of complications,” said deputy council leader Garry Bridges, in charge of overseeing the project.

One of the town hall's hundreds of restored stained glass windows

“Throughout the whole time we’ve done work, there’s been a pandemic, there has been inflation after Ukraine. But on top of that, the nature of the specialist work going on in that building is really complex."

More specifically, some £1.6m of problems have been found with previously unseen issues in the building’s roof, which were only ‘discovered’ once the outer layers of the building were removed.

Council chiefs say at least one new problem has been found in this fashion every week since last summer. Many require unique engineering solutions as off-the-shelf parts and materials cannot satisfy the need to restore the building to grade-I condition, bosses add.

The council says the project team of skilled craftspeople are now 75% of the way through the ‘construction’ phase".

The recently revealed restored clock tower

Delays also mean contractors can claim for compensation from the council, arguing they have incurred extra costs on equipment hire and lost the ability to ply their trade elsewhere when work overruns. The council says it is ‘robustly negotiating 80 such claims to ensure a fair outcome’.

Deputy Council Leader Councillor Garry Bridges said:

“This is a once-in-a-century undertaking which will benefit the city for many decades to come. The end result will be worth the wait.

“We will give this iconic building and Albert Square back to the people of Manchester not just in the best shape since they were created but more welcoming and more accessible so everyone can enjoy and share in their history and heritage for generations to come.

“Failure to carry out essential work on the town hall, allowing it to slip into disrepair, decay and disuse, would have been more costly in the long-run without creating anything like the same positive legacy for the city.

“We look forward to sharing the results of this project. They will become increasingly evident over the months ahead as sections are completed, scaffolding is removed and more of the enlarged square is restored to public use. Most of all we look forward to throwing open the doors of the town hall to the people of Manchester and a programme of re-opening events is being developed.

“This is at testing moment but what the Our Town Hall project will deliver for Manchester will stand the test of time.”

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