‘We need an inquiry into the costs of refurbishing Bristol Beacon’

The costs of refurbishing Bristol Beacon, previously Colston Hall, are sufficiently worrying to merit an independent review.

In summary:

• 2016, mayor Marvin Rees authorised £1.6m investment in ‘Colston Hall Phase II’ to enable the preparation and submission of a detailed planning application; 2017, a cabinet paper included a refurbishment budget of £48.8m;
• 2018, cabinet delegated authority to officers to appoint contractors, subject to the development of work packages ensuring a maximum project envelope of £48.8m (subsequently increased to £52.4m);
• 2019, Wilmott Dixon started work; 2020, the hall was renamed Bristol Beacon; 2021, the budget more than doubled to £106.9m; 2022, cabinet approved a further increase to £131.9m.

Given the alarming rise in costs and the impact on the city’s finances, a petition is calling for an independent inquiry to examine the creation, implementation and management of the contract.

Bristol Beacon is due to reopen on November 30 – photo: Martin Booth

Rees has not shied away from reviewing Bristol’s financial management in the past.

Following his election in May 2016, he commissioned Steve Bundred, former chief executive of the audit commission, to examine the legacy of Bristol’s year as European Green Capital and the activities of its associated arms-length company.

The resultant report found: “Bristol 2015 Ltd performed well and the Green Capital year was a considerable success” but “the stance taken by both the council and the company in responding to FOI and similar requests for greater transparency unwittingly created suspicions that there was something to hide.”

Rees commented that the report “draws a firm, fair and impartial line under European Green Capital.”

Perhaps of greater importance was a second review, again conducted by Bundred, examining why Bristol City Council faced an unexpected budget deficit of £29.1m at the end of former mayor George Ferguson’s term of office.

Bundred concluded that cuts to funding from central government, combined with increasing demand for council services, were underlying financial pressures that were not of the council’s own making, but poor financial management was also identified.

Recommendations to strengthen the council’s finance department, improve financial reporting, and keep backbench and opposition councillors better informed were publicly welcomed by Rees.

Nevertheless, concerns about poor financial management have resurfaced in relation to the refurbishment of Bristol Beacon.

The pandemic, materials and labour shortages, unanticipated structural problems, and inflation have all been cited as contributing to the escalating costs, but external auditors Grant Thornton have also stated that Bristol City Council underestimated the complexity and difficulty of the work and failed to have effective arrangements in place.

These problems were not entirely unexpected. Back in 2018, then Green councillor for Clifton Down Clive Stevens called for a delay in the decision to underwrite the £49m redevelopment while the business plan was considered in more detail, but his concerns were publicly dismissed by Rees.

More recently, Conservative councillor for Stockwood Jonathan Hucker pointed out that “Bristol City Council bear all the risk but will receive none of the rewards” of the refurbishment because, under the terms of the current lease to Bristol Music Trust, the council is unable to recoup any revenue from Bristol Beacon.

The increased costs will be financed by a loan from the Public Works Loans Board to be repaid over 50 years at £2.3m per annum with an assumed interest rate of 1.5 per cent. But the current interest rate for such a loan is 4.9 per cent, leading Hucker to suggest that “the council either have a wild optimism bias on this or they are deliberately deceiving the public as to the likely cost.”

Liberal Democrat councillor for Hengrove and Whitchurch Park Andrew Brown observed that the council’s contribution to the refurbishment has risen “from £10m and 20 per cent of the original budget to £83.9m and 64 per cent of the total cost” and the leader of the Green group and Lockleaze councillor Heather Mack, stated “servicing the Bristol Beacon debt will hit our revenue budgets for 50 years.”

Suzanne Audrey has launched a petition demanding an “independent inquiry into the creation, implementation and management of the contract to refurbish Bristol Beacon” – photo: Betty Woolerton

Labour councillors have tended to remain quiet on the subject but it is difficult to imagine that they do not share concerns about the impact of the Bristol Beacon refurbishment on the city’s finances.

It seems there is little choice but to complete what is described as a “once-in-a-generation transformation” and hope that Bristol Beacon lives up to the promise of providing “one of the best and most accessible performance and music education venues in Europe”.

But that does not eliminate the need for an impartial understanding of why the costs escalated so dramatically, with almost all of the risk falling on the council and ultimately the people of Bristol.

If the petition gains the 3,500 signatures required to trigger a debate in full council, Rees may be persuaded to commission his third “firm, fair and impartial” review into Bristol’s financial affairs.

Suzanne Audrey is a Bristolian with an interest in local democracy

Main photo: Betty Woolerton

Read next:

• Council contributed to Bristol Beacon refurbishment rises to £84m
• Rees defends escalating costs of Bristol Beacon revamp
• Winners and losers across Bristol in latest Arts Council funding

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