Bovis and Manchester council drop legal fight over town hall refurb

Manchester City Council and Bovis have told Construction News they are “working together” to complete the restoration of the city’s town hall by spring 2027 after abandoning a legal fight.

Bovis Construction (Europe) Ltd, the main contractor for the Manchester Town Hall refurbishment project, launched a claim in the High Court against Manchester City Council in November to enforce an adjudicator’s award granting it extra time for the works.

But now the legal action has been paused after both sides found common ground.

In a joint statement to CN, the council and Bovis said: “Manchester City Council and Bovis are working together to complete the Our Town Hall project in spring 2027.

“Very positive progress has been made and the council and Bovis are aligned.

“As such, the court action will be withdrawn as soon as legal formalities have been concluded.”

The dispute between Lendlease – since rebranded as Bovis – and the council centred on the length of the extension of time the contractor was entitled to for a “critical delay” to the project between May 2021 and February 2023.

The delay affected both segments of the project: the Town Hall restoration (section one) and the redevelopment of Albert Square (section two).

The contract administrator granted Bovis an extension of 204 days for each section of the project.

However, neither side was happy with the outcome: Bovis considered the extension insufficient, whereas the council thought it was too long.

On 23 June 2025, Manchester City Council served a notice of adjudication and HH Frances Kirkham CBE was appointed as adjudicator.

According to court papers filed by Bovis, the council argued during the adjudication that the contract administrator acted within his powers and that the extensions should either remain as originally awarded or be reduced.

But Kirkham concluded that the “fair and reasonable” extensions should be longer, at 338 days for section one and 427 days for section two.

In legal correspondence in the weeks following the adjudication decision, the council said Kirkham’s conclusions were beyond her authority as adjudicator.

It maintained that the adjudicator’s award was “of no effect and unenforceable”, and that the project completion dates should stay as established by the contract administrator.

Bovis insisted that the adjudicator’s decision was binding on both sides and that the council had to implement her extension.

On 19 November 2025, Bovis submitted a claim to the High Court to enforce the adjudication.

But after the parties made “very positive progress” on the dispute, Mr Justice Waksman issued an order staying the proceedings the following month.

The project to restore the grade I-listed neo-gothic Manchester Town Hall and Albert Square has been affected by delays and a 59 per cent budget hike from the initial £330m to £524.8m, as of December 2025.

Lendlease was initially appointed as main contractor in 2019. Since then, the Australian group sold its UK construction business to US private equity firm Atlas Holdings, which resurrected the Bovis brand name.

The council said the project had been hit by a “unique combination” of challenges, including a shortage of specialist labour, “unprecedented materials and labour cost inflation”, and subcontractor collapses.

“Such is the complexity of the project that any delay to one element of work has a knock-on impact on many others,” the council said in December.

The project was originally due to finish in summer 2024.