Britannia Hotels will have to foot £500k Royal Albion demolition bill

Brighton and Hove City Council has taken control of the seafront site to carry out at least £500,000 worth of safety and demolition work after fire damaged the building last month.

The details are set out in a report to a special meeting of the council’s Strategy, Finance and City Regeneration Committee scheduled for Friday (4 August).

After the fire, council officials met senior fire officers, a structural engineer and representatives of Dorton Demolition, Sussex Police and Britannia Hotels.

An emergency planning team also attended the meeting, on Monday, July 17, when those present discussed how to deal with the burnt-out west wing of the hotel, formerly Lion Mansions.

The report to councillors said: “During this meeting, the chief incident fire officer asked the senior building control officer who would take responsibility for this situation when they handed over, as is normal in situations where a fire is out but a dangerous structure remains.

“The council officer responded that further works to make the building safe would continue under section 78 (of the Building Act 1984) and so the council would be taking control of the site.

“It was explained to the representative of Britannia Hotels that under this act, the local authority would undertake the demolition and clearance works as required to make the building safe and all costs incurred would be charged to the hotel owners.

“This was acknowledged by the hotel owner’s representative on site and was followed up in writing to the building owners.

“Under the council’s contract standing orders, decisions to enter into contracts over £500,000 must be authorised by the relevant committee.

“At the time of making the decision to commission Dorton Demolition to undertake the works, it was unclear what the level of cost would be and the urgency of the situation required the council to commission the work to start.”

Once work started, it was clear the cost would exceed £500,000 and so required councillor approval.

The report said that the council aimed to recover all the costs from Britannia Hotels and / or its insurer.

It said: “The key potential loss to the council, assuming ultimate recovery of all expenses, is the interest on cash balances forgone.

“In the current higher interest rate environment, the council would forgo interest of approximately £2,000 to £4,000 for each month it takes to recover monies from the insurer. However, the council will request interim payments to mitigate this.

“Although unlikely, the possibility of non-recovery must also be considered, and this would require the council to identify one-off resources or capital financing in order to provide for any unrecovered sums.”

Work carried out so far is the minimum to keep the area safe and protect the remaining listed building.

The site will be handed back to Britannia Hotels once unsafe parts of the building are demolished and the remaining sections propped and hoardings put in place.

At this point, the exclusion zone would be reduced to a minimum.

People living in eight flats in the neighbouring Youth Hostel Association (YHA) building and nine flats in the nearby Lace House will be unable to return to their homes until the burnt-out top floor on the north side of the Royal Albion is removed.

The report said: “These residents are still out of their homes and they have been facing a very difficult time.

“So far, officers have made contact with residents from seven of the eight YHA flats and three of the nine from Lace House.”

The special Strategy, Finance and City Regeneration Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 2pm on Friday 4 August. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.