Extra half a million needed to convert Corby gym to council homes after three year delay

A former gym in Corby will cost North Northamptonshire Council £1,490,000 to convert to social housing after the project stalled.

The building in Cannock Road, formerly used as a gym, had been the subject of a planning application to convert it to a homeless shelter in 2018.

But when funding fell through, in October 2019 the former Corby Council decided to convert the large building into five single-storey accesible homes including two that would be fully wheelchair accessible.

After the original builder, Cafos Ltd, went bust with the building partly demolished, the scheme ground to a halt early last year. The new North Northamptonshire Council took over the running of the project from the defunct Corby Council in May 2021.

The original budget for the conversion was £847,000, but in September last year councillors asked for the approval of another £189,000, which was granted. They said at that time that Jeakins Weir would take over the contract.

Now the cost has gone up yet again and members at next Thursday’s full council meeting will be asked to rubber stamp a further £454,000 – taking the total cost of the scheme up to £1.49m. The rise in cost means the whole scheme will now need to go out to tender. Work may now not begin until 2023.

One Corby family, one of whom suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, has been waiting for one of the homes since 2018 because there is no other suitable home in the borough for them.

A report to councillors says that the new budget will cover all work to date – including money lost by the previous abortive works - as well as ‘inflationary pressures’.

The cost of each unit will be £298,000 which the council says is so high because of the cost of converting the existing building as well as the specialist nature of the units being built. Forty per cent of the cost will be met by Right to Buy receipts from council homes that have been previously sold off.

The public meeting will take place on Thursday (November 24) at 2pm.