{"id":532105,"date":"2025-11-07T12:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T12:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=532105"},"modified":"2025-11-06T10:02:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T10:02:21","slug":"contractor-to-get-extra-1m-from-council-over-problem-hit-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contracts\/contractor-to-get-extra-1m-from-council-over-problem-hit-scheme-07-11-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Contractor to get extra \u00a31m from council over problem-hit scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">Stepnell is set to be awarded an extra \u00a31m for a problem-hit market square redevelopment\u00a0following a dispute over additional costs.<\/p>\n<p>The family-owned contractor was appointed to redevelop Northampton\u2019s historic market square in 2023. However, the scheme suffered a number of \u201crisks and delays\u201d due to collapsed Victorian sewers and archaeological finds, according to West Northamptonshire Council (WNC).<\/p>\n<p>Stepnell was seeking an additional \u00a32.3m from WNC for \u201closs and expense\u201d as the project was delayed by 163 days.<\/p>\n<p>However, WNC\u2019s cabinet is now set to approve a further \u00a31m payment at a meeting next week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A report by council officers said the local authority had \u201cdisputed the contractor\u2019s assertions about what was covered in the original costs\u201d and what was defined as an \u201cunexpected or additional cost\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The council\u2019s report recommends that the budget for the job is increased to \u00a313.5m, up by \u00a31m from the original price, to cover<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>\u201cadditional construction costs\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The report said the outcome with Stepnell demonstrates the \u201cbest final account position that WNC can achieve while minimising the significant exposure to further cost from continued dispute at further adjudications or court proceedings\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Councillor James Petter, WNC\u2019s cabinet member for local economy, culture and leisure, said: \u201cWe know this wasn\u2019t the outcome anyone wanted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWe\u2019re taking responsibility and learning from it. Our approach to construction contracts, risk and procurement needs tightening, and we\u2019re already reviewing those processes to make sure this doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Northampton\u2019s market square reopened in October last year with practical completion the following month, according to the council.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The project was partly funded through an \u00a38.4m grant from the government\u2019s Future High Streets Fund, and \u00a34m through the Community Infrastructure Levy.<\/p>\n<p>Warwickshire-based Stepnell reported pre-tax profit of \u00a31m from turnover of \u00a3112.8m in the year to 31 March 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/financial\/demerged-contractor-eyes-20-turnover-boost-31-10-2025\/\">based on figures published last week.<\/a> The firm demerged from its parent group last year to become a standalone contractor.<\/p>\n<p>Stepnell declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stepnell is set to be awarded an extra \u00a31m for a problem-hit market square redevelopment\u00a0following a dispute over additional costs. The family-owned contractor was appointed to redevelop Northampton\u2019s historic market square in 2023. However, the scheme suffered a number of \u201crisks and delays\u201d due to collapsed Victorian sewers and archaeological finds, according to West Northamptonshire &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29901,"featured_media":508518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[558,565,578],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-532105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contracts","category-government","category-legal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.7 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Contractor to get extra \u00a31m from council over problem-hit scheme | Construction News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stepnell is set to be awarded an extra \u00a31m for a problem-hit market square redevelopment\u00a0following a dispute over additional costs. The family-owned\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contracts\/contractor-to-get-extra-1m-from-council-over-problem-hit-scheme-07-11-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Contractor to get extra \u00a31m from council over problem-hit scheme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stepnell is set to be awarded an extra \u00a31m for a problem-hit market square redevelopment\u00a0following a dispute over additional costs. 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