“Spiralling cost” of building materials hits care home extension

Friday 20 August 2021

A dramatic rise in the cost of building materials has forced Alderney’s General Services Committee to ask for extra money to complete the Connaught Care Home extension.

Work on Phase 3 of the project, originally tendered at £1.29m, was paused last month when the impact of spiralling costs for materials came to light.

At a specially held meeting of the GSC, it was unanimously agreed to ask for an emergency meeting of the Policy & Finance Committee to approve an extra £737,000 and for its Chairman, Bill Abel, to write to President William Tate to call a special meeting of the full States to ratify the additional spend for final approval by Guernsey’s Policy & Resources Committee.

Groundwork and substructure have been completed but a number of factors, such as the effects of Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the numbers of supply chain workers in lockdown or self- isolating, have pushed up the cost of timber, steel, building blocks, cement and roof tiles.

GSC considered a range of options in July including increasing the budget, using different materials, building the shell only at this stage or stopping the works until prices stabilised.

The committee has been made aware that timber structure would not reduce costs and the time taken to redesign and go back out to tender would delay the whole project by at least three months.

“The Connaught is full to capacity and this extension is urgently needed,” said GSC Chairman Boyd Kelly. “This factor led us to eliminate all options apart from asking for the extra money.

“Work can resume as soon as the Policy and Finance Committee is given approval by Policy and Resources Committee in Guernsey. Everyone is working hard so hopefully work can commence as soon as possible.”

The extension will create 13 additional residential rooms for long-term or respite care, together with clinic rooms and offices.