MANCHESTER — A property tribunal has ordered developer Urban Splash and four connected firms to pay £46.5 million to remediate critical fire-safety defects across seven residential developments in Manchester.
Legal action brought by the Housing Ministry forced the settlement. The First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) ruled that five corporate entities—Urban Splash Limited, Urban Splash Developments Limited, Urban Splash Group Holdings Limited, Urban Splash Work Limited, and Stubbs Mill LLP—bear joint liability for the remediation debt. The bill is severe. Most of the award will reimburse the public Building Safety Fund, which stepped in to strip flammable panels and rebuild defective fire breaks, while £741,594 will transfer directly to one development's resident management company.
Government lawyers originally sought to recoup more than £60 million. Tribunal judges agreed that £60,638,548 in repair work had been reasonably spent or contracted to eliminate life-threatening hazards from the mid-2000s developments. Yet the panel slashed the state's main claim by 10 percent. The judges pointed directly to systemic failures by government bodies and building watchdogs exposed during the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and the Dame Judith Hackitt Review. State oversight had failed for years, the tribunal observed, making a full recovery unjust under Section 124 of the Building Safety Act 2022.
Post-Grenfell inspections across the seven complexes revealed compromised internal fire walls, missing cavity barriers, and combustible exterior cladding. The ruling shields four external investment vehicles named in the original proceedings, leaving the Urban Splash group entities to shoulder the financial burden alone.
| Development Name | Location | Primary Safety Defects Identified | Remediation Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chips Building | New Islington | Flammable cladding, missing cavity barriers | Remediation funded |
| Burton Place | Castlefield | Defective external wall systems, barrier gaps | Remediation funded |
| Moho Building | Ellesmere Street | Compartmentation defects, cladding panels | Remediation funded |
| The Box Works | Worsley Street | Internal wall breaches, combustible materials | Remediation funded |
| Christabel, Emmeline & Sylvia Houses | Dalton Street |
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner welcomed the ruling, affirming that ministers will aggressively use remediation orders against developers who stall on legacy repairs. "I welcome this important decision, which is clear that those responsible for unsafe buildings need to pay their fair share to fix them," Rayner said. "We will continue in our efforts to recover taxpayer funds spent on remediation and our work to make people's homes safe."
Urban Splash described the ruling's financial impact as significant, while noting that company leadership intends to cooperate with housing officials on an orderly settlement path. The precedent now arms regulators with a tested legal formula to crack shell-company protections and claw back public cash from residential builders across England.
| Missing cavity stops, compartmentation damage |
| Remediation funded |