Sheffield’s Heart of the City II is delayed due to Covid pandemic and Brexit

Sheffield Council says international and national problems have hampered several schemes in the city and work has fallen behind.

Finance manager Damian Watkinson told a meeting that it had been a really challenging year for construction.

He said: “Covid and Brexit have impacted significantly on supply chains and contractors and even our own resources, our own staff have been off, so it has been really difficult.

“We’ve had problems with deliveries, literally getting the materials through. For instance, with the Grey to Green project we’ve got granite coming from Portugal getting held up, so you can’t deliver that scheme. Costs have also increased which creates difficulties.

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“We’ve had contractors go bust on major flood development schemes, at both the Upper and Lower Don Valley schemes both contracts went into administration.

“There’s pent up demand in the market for everything to be delivered after this pandemic, everybody is now trying to access all the same resources. Then we had the next wave of the pandemic and the ability to deliver reduced again.

“On top of that there’s also been issues around regulations changing due to us leaving Europe and that changeover takes more time.

“We’ve seen schemes go out to tender and come back at significantly higher costs than the estimated budget.

“We’ve had to look at whether we have the resources or if we have to go back out to tender and all these things extend the process.”

Mr Watkinson said the council had been over optimistic after 2020. “People thought this year would get easier and maybe we were bullish and thought we’ll be able to get moving again, but it’s just not been the case.

“Maybe we’ve been too optimistic trying to deliver too much this year. We’re trying to take stock of what’s happened nationally and internationally and say, this is how it’s going to affect us locally, let’s get more realistic about how we can deliver that.”

Heart of the City II delays

Block D Grovesnor House

Delays in securing letting and reconfiguring vacant units, including expected capital contributions for all remaining units.

Block A Palatine Chambers

The revised budget profile more accurately reflects construction programme based the contractors cash flow profile

Block B Laycock House

Delays due to Covid and supplier issues

Block C Pepper Pot Building

Delays due to Covid and supplier issues

Block E Telephone House

Delays due to Covid and supplier issues

Block G development plots

Slippage on the adjacent Pounds Park impacting on the sale of the development plots

Block H Henry’s Block

Construction delays and delays due to issues with existing conditions of the buildings and the need to prop and underpin elements

Block H1 Leahs Yard

Delays in securing planning consents and in obtaining competitive tenders for works.

HOCII Infrastructure and Public Realm

Budget relates to public realm elements of scheme to be delivered alongside developments