IN Brief:
- McPhillips has received the replacement principal contractor award at £8.45m excluding VAT.
- The project comprises 46 accessible and adaptable apartments for independent living by people aged over 55.
- The new award follows an earlier Torsion Construction appointment that did not proceed, with works scheduled through January 2028.
McPhillips (Wellington) has been awarded the principal construction contract for Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Doris Robinson Court development, replacing the contractor originally selected for the 46-apartment independent-living scheme.
The new contract is valued at £8.45m excluding VAT and was awarded on 17 September, with the award notice published the following day. The current procurement record gives a construction start date of 30 September 2026 and a contract end date of 1 January 2028.
Doris Robinson Court is planned as a 46-unit apartment development in Meir for people aged over 55 who are able to live independently. The accommodation comprises accessible and adaptable one- and two-bedroom apartments, with the works package also covering landscaping, external works, and internal fit-out.
The September award is a replacement rather than the project’s first contractor appointment. Stoke-on-Trent had previously awarded the scheme to Torsion Construction, with a contract award notice published in March. The latest procurement notice states that the original contract did not proceed and that the council has now awarded the work to the supplier ranked second in the competition.
Fifteen bids were received. Using the second-placed tenderer allows the council to move the project forward without beginning a completely new procurement, although the change inevitably requires a fresh mobilisation period and revised coordination with the design and client teams.
The new agreed contract price is lower than the earlier Torsion award recorded in March. The replacement award is £8,446,773 excluding VAT, while the previous award notice recorded a higher figure. The underlying scope, however, remains centred on the construction of the 46-unit block and associated site works rather than a reduced residential programme.
The scheme forms part of Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s redevelopment of former sheltered housing sites that were no longer considered suitable for their original use. Earlier council plans identified Doris Robinson Court specifically for over-55s independent living, with a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments intended to provide homes that can accommodate residents’ changing mobility needs.
That requirement shapes the construction brief. Accessible and adaptable dwellings place emphasis on level access, circulation widths, bathroom layouts, service positions, lifts, lighting, and the relationship between private apartments and external areas. These details have to be coordinated early because late changes to structure or building services can be disproportionately expensive in a multi-storey residential block.
The site context adds another constraint. The council’s procurement material notes an existing council-owned bungalow complex in the immediate vicinity, so site logistics, deliveries, noise, dust, and temporary access will need to be managed around occupied residential properties rather than an isolated development plot.
A contractor replacement close to the planned start date also compresses pre-construction activity. McPhillips has to establish site management arrangements, programme the works, confirm supply-chain appointments, review design information, and coordinate any outstanding approvals in a short interval between award and the scheduled 30 September commencement.
Some project information generated during the previous procurement should remain usable because the client brief has not been replaced, but commercial and delivery arrangements still have to be rebuilt around a different principal contractor. Subcontract packages, supplier quotations, programme assumptions, and temporary works proposals cannot simply be assumed to transfer unchanged.
The programme running to January 2028 gives the scheme around 15 months from the scheduled start date. Within that period the contractor will need to complete substructure and superstructure works, close the envelope, install building services, finish the apartments and common areas, complete landscaping and external works, and take the development through testing and handover.
Independent-living housing also places greater emphasis on completion quality because defects in lifts, access systems, heating, ventilation, or communal circulation can have a disproportionate effect on residents. Commissioning and snagging therefore have to be treated as part of the delivery programme rather than compressed into the final weeks.
McPhillips brings both building and civil engineering capability to the project, which is useful where residential construction is accompanied by external works, drainage, access, and constrained site interfaces. The immediate test will be how quickly the replacement contractor can convert the re-award into visible progress without allowing the procurement change to create another programme reset.
The award also illustrates the value of maintaining a competitive procurement record beyond the preferred bidder. When an original appointment falls away, a credible second-placed tender can provide a route back to delivery, but only if pricing, capacity, and contractual assumptions remain valid by the time the replacement decision is made.
For Doris Robinson Court, that route has now been used. The project has a cleared procurement hurdle, a named replacement contractor, and a scheduled start date; the next meaningful measure will be whether mobilisation proceeds on time and the revised programme holds through to the January 2028 completion point.
