Collapsed PFI firm sues fire safety advisers

Teneo, acting on behalf of businesses owed money by Whittington Facilities Limited, has started proceedings against Currie & Brown over work it carried out in relation to the Whittington Hospital, which had a fire in 2018. The blaze required 149 patients to be evacuated.

The PFI firm at the north London acute and community trust collapsed in 2020 after the trust withheld payment, citing the failure of fire safety systems.

WFL owed £41.1m to a subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group in 2020, and Teneo began legal action against the trust over its witholding of payments about a year ago.

However, a new administrators report published by Teneo this month said it had issued “particulars of claim against another third party who acted as independent tester for the works”.

A legal document sent by Teneo to the trust said WFL was “passing on liability in respect of a number of defects which are alleged by the trust”.

Currie & Brown’s healthcare business works with estates teams across the NHS and internationally, including advising the Mexican government’s public/private partnership on health.

Currie & Brown told HSJ: “We are aware of the legal action in regard to Whittington Healthcare Trust. At this time, we are unable to comment further”.

The High Court’s technology and construction division showed a part seven claim form had been listed with it in December by Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, acting on behalf of WFL.

The administrators report showed Teneo had spent £1.5m with HSF LLP so far. It said: “HSF have also instructed experts in the industry to assist the administrators with potential claims”. It said £175,000 had been spent with Infraquest Ltd “to support claims against third parties including review of key documentation”.

In April last year Lloyds told HSJ it was “supportive” of the legal action against the NHS, saying it was a “matter of last resort”. This month’s administrators report showed the banking group had contributed £2.3m towards the administration process, including the legal action.

In its initial defence to last year’s claim, the Whittington Trust said: “WFL took very limited and wholly inadequate steps to address the fire safety issues before October 2018, including failing to even log them. As a result of WFL’s failure to self-report and remediate issues, the trust had to log over 600 incomplete and/or defective jobs relating to the fire safety issues with the helpdesk”.

The trust said last year the cost of making the building fire safe would come to more than the £56m being sought by the administrators.

In its most recent court filing, Teneo denied that “rectification costs are of the order of magnitude alleged by the trust”, calling its estimate “manifestly excessive” and putting the highest possible figure at £15m.

Lloyds Banking Group, Whittington Healthcare Trust and Teneo have been approached for comment.