New England House in New England Street was closed by Brighton and Hove City Council in November 2024 following the discovery of over 1,000 “intolerable” fire safety inadequacies.
The closure forced around 100 businesses located in the building to shut down for the weekend, impacting their trade.
In March, the council served traders working there with notice to vacate the building by September.
Tenants of the building were outraged at the news and called for a longer notice period to find alternate premises.
Now, Brighton and Hove City Council says lessons have been learned from a report on the sequences of events.
The report, which is due to be discussed at an audit and standards committee meeting on June 24, follows the request for a full internal audit to understand how the situation happened and identify improvements to avoid future repetition.
These include:
- Lack of formal project management arrangements
- Lack of project governance
- Lack of understanding relating to roles and responsibilities of staff working on the project, and those managing contracts
- Lack of financial resources or staff required to deliver such a large-scale project
It stated that “the property team did not prioritise the fire safety measures” while the regeneration team were focused on “economic development and place making”, meaning the “worsening fire safety situation was not prioritised to the extent that it should have been”.
The report also stated that the building has “suffered from years of underinvestment” .
It includes recommended actions and steps being taken to realise them, as well as senior leader consideration of how the organisational culture is being changed to embed a learning culture and what can be done better to reduce the likelihood of something similar happening in the future.
Recommendations include:
- All staff should undertake relevant training to ensure they fully understand their roles and responsibilities, including around raising concerns and escalating issues.
- Improved approach and training around programme and project management.
- Standard arrangements should be put in place to ensure all relevant project records and documentation are retained and accessible, to enable an audit trail of project activity and decision-making.
- Where there is a need for external surveys and reports to be commissioned, management should ensure appropriate action is taken in response to any findings and recommendations.
- Regular consultation with the fire safety consultant to immediately address any actions to ensure the building is safe for continued use.
Chief executive Jess Gibbons said: “Closing New England House at short notice was not a decision I wanted to take but based on the evidence of risk to life it was the right one to take.
“This building has played such an important role for our creative industries. I know the sudden closure had a devastating impact on the tenants and businesses based there and for that I am sorry.
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“As landlord, the safety of our tenants is our priority.
“I commissioned this audit report to look back at actions and decisions since 2020 to understand why risks were not escalated sooner, avoiding the need for the closure and disruption to businesses.
“As a learning organisation it’s crucial we learn from what’s happened here to put things right and make sure it never happens again.
“The council’s organisational redesign has improved structures around how we manage our properties and there is clear leadership in place to ensure actions are being taken around New England House.”
Councillor Jacob Taylor, deputy leader and cabinet member for finance and city regeneration, said: “New England House has been a hub for people and business from across our creative and digital sectors and a place that’s been incredibly important to the city’s economy.
“Long-term underinvestment in the building created risks that the council as landlord must now rectify, but the findings of the audit report help explain why these serious fire safety concerns were not addressed sooner.
“While compensation has been offered to all tenants, the avoidable disruption caused by the sudden temporary closure and asking businesses to relocate is not acceptable.
“It’s important we learn lessons from what’s happened historically to provide an answer to tenants, and to prevent it happening in the future, rather than just pay lip service to it.”
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