Insurance costs rise at Mansfield Council’s London building with £20m fire safety issues

50-52 Bedford Road in Clapham, London
By Andrew Topping, Local Democracy Reporter

The cost of insuring Mansfield District Council’s London apartment building has risen by more than £16,000 compared with last year.

The increase is partly due to defects found inside it and difficulties securing an agreement, a new report says.

The report shows the authority’s insurance agreement on the building will cost £284,863 for the 2023 to 2024 financial year, up from £268,554.54 the year before.

It follows the authority admitting it is an “unattractive building to insure” with work to repair it expected to cost millions of pounds.

The building, at 50-52 Bedford Road, Clapham, was acquired as an investment in 2017 at a cost of £5.95m. It has business space on the ground floor with 40 apartments above.

It brings in more than £300,000 per year to help shore up council budgets, but an independent assessment in 2018 following the Grenfell Tower disaster found several fire safety defects.

Repair works are now planned and residents living inside it will begin leaving their homes in May.

The council expects to spend almost £20m on addressing the issues between 2018 and a scheduled completion date of 2025.

Now the new council report has outlined the cost of insuring the building following the defects coming to light.

The authority says it “experienced difficulty securing an insurer for the property” due to its condition.

Its current agreement with Touchstone Underwriting Ltd, which expires on Wednesday (March 8), splits the risk across multiple insurers to protect against losses arising from its defects.

The council had been consulting its insurance brokers to find a different insurer but says agreements are “extremely hard to place”.

It said insurers have been “actively stepping away from providing terms” on buildings with known fire safety issues, meaning the authority had to renew with Touchstone.

This agreement was only found at the start of the month and was approved by the council on Monday (March 6).

In the report published alongside the decision, the council says 15 per cent of the new £284,863 agreement will be charged back to people in the building.

Mansfield District Council’s headquarters

This amounts to £42,729.45, which will be split between the properties and lift manufacturer KONE on the ground floor through service charges.

The remaining £242,133.55 must be met through council budgets, with more than £12m allocated for the building in the upcoming financial year.

In the report, Philip College, the council’s corporate asset manager, said: “The extent of the building defects at the property makes this an unattractive building to insure.

“Having consulted the insurance brokers, they have managed to secure renewal terms with Touchstone.

“At present, risks such as this where there are known issues in relation to fire safety are extremely hard to place and insurers are actively stepping away from providing terms.

“The brokers, therefore, recommend that we renew with Touchstone on the terms presented.

“Given the defects and associated cost in obtaining insurance cover the overall premium has increased.

“[This agreement] is required to ensure that the council acts in accordance with its contractual duties and its obligations as a landlord.”

It comes weeks after the authority signed a £2.2m contract to begin moving all residents out of the building and into temporary housing so work can begin.


Read more:

Council facing £20m bill to fix fire safety concerns in apartment building it owns in London

Unanswered questions from company behind council’s London building with £20m fire safety concerns

Former mayors defend investments after council’s nearly £20m bill for London building revealed

Timeline outlined for planned £20m fire safety works at council’s London flats

Residents in Mansfield Council’s London flats with £20m fire safety issues to leave building in May

Mansfield Council’s application for fire safety repairs at its London flats rejected last summer


The ‘all-inclusive’ agreement, signed with estate agency Lambert Smith Hampton, will fund rent payments, storage costs and other relocation fees for all households in the building.

The authority says it is in the process of drawing up repair works, which are expected to get approval from Lambeth Building Control in the coming weeks.

This will bring forward recladding works and address issues with fire resistance, with residents saying their walls, floors and ceilings will be ripped out so the building can be rebuilt internally.