Hackney Council has cut £100m from its capital budget after an extraordinary Cabinet meeting on Tuesday approved a major rephasing of its investment programme, blaming contractor failures, construction delays and stalled regeneration schemes.
Mayor Caroline Woodley chaired the extraordinary meeting on 22 September, at which cabinet members signed off agenda item 6, the “September 2026 Capital Update and Property Disposals and Acquisitions Report”, according to Hackney Council’s published decision record. The move reduces the borough’s gross capital spending programme from £602m to £502m.
Capital budgets cover long-term investment in buildings, infrastructure and regeneration — distinct from the day-to-day revenue spending that funds services — and the rephasing moves planned spending into later years rather than cancelling it outright. Even so, the scale of the revision underlines how far the council’s construction pipeline has slipped.
The report pushes £281m of capital spending into future years. The council’s own decision papers record £288,507k moved out of 2026/27 — £280,686k into 2027/28 and £7,820k into 2028/29 — with the £281m figure reported publicly reflecting the 2027/28 slice, rounded.
Alongside the rephasing, £188.2m of unspent capital is carried forward from 2025/26 into 2026/27, including around £65m tied to housing. The decision record breaks the total down as £123,424k of non-housing spending and £64,802k of housing spending — £188,226k in all.
Hackney’s capital programme funds long-term projects such as new homes, school buildings and estate regeneration. The September report — formally the September 2026 Capital Update and Property Disposals and Acquisitions Report — also covers property disposals and acquisitions alongside the rephasing.
Ardmore collapse stalls flagship scheme
The biggest single blow to the programme is the collapse of Ardmore Construction Group, the contractor behind the flagship Britannia regeneration scheme. Ardmore won the contract in July 2023 to deliver 51 homes for social rent, 30 for shared ownership and 290 homes for sale — but appointed administrators on 11 June this year. The project has since ground to a halt with an estimated six months of tasks still outstanding, Construction News reported after examining the cabinet papers.
Wates has been appointed under a pre-construction services agreement, signed in August, to pick up the stalled scheme. But a main contract award has yet to be announced, and the council says it hopes work will restart in October or November, bringing the project back into active delivery.
Delays across the pipeline
Ardmore’s failure is not the only pressure on the programme. Council officers also blame delays to onsite start timelines for estate regeneration, housing supply and the new homes programme; the deferral of construction works and tendering while scoping designs, feasibility studies and condition surveys — including fire risk and remedial work variances — are completed; government changes to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) policies, which have delayed other projects; and failed last-minute acquisitions of homes.
The rephasing touches schemes across the borough. One example given in the report is £296,000 of works at Jubilee Primary School in Stoke Newington, now carried forward into 2027/28.
Wider funding squeeze
The decision lands the same week the Green-run council hosted its anti-austerity summit, where around 200 councillors, trade unionists and Green Party members debated how local authorities should respond to ongoing cuts.
The capital squeeze also comes as the council fights battles on other fronts, including urging TfL to scrap proposed bus cuts across the borough.
The council says the re-profiled programme will be kept under review as schemes progress and contractors are appointed. With hundreds of millions of pounds of investment now pushed into 2027/28 and beyond, the pace at which stalled projects — above all Britannia — return to site will decide whether the revised timetable holds.
Reporting based on Hackney Council’s published decision record and Construction News’ report of the cabinet papers.
