£680,000 contract awarded for long-delayed Lower Kirkgate repairs
One of the oldest streets in Leeds city centre street has been closed to traffic since April 2024 when part of an 18th century building collapsed, with repairs now set to start this month.
The collapsed property forms part of a row of privately owned buildings. Leeds City Council said last year that the owner had declined to undertake repairs, citing a lack of funds.
At the time, the council voted in favour of enforcing a CPO, although this hasn’t yet been put into action. For now, the council is carrying out the work itself and said it will seek to recover the costs from the building’s owner.
The latest contract value represents an increase of more than £260,000 on the £414,500 cost previously announced in September 2025, with the rise following surveys carried out during preparatory work earlier this year by building firm Geo Houlton and Sons.
The council said months of preparatory work had been undertaken to enable the stabilisation of the heritage buildings.
Two linked companies, City Fusion and Kirkgate Land Residential, have repeatedly ignored attempts by the council to facilitate improvements to the buildings, including refusing grant support from a council-backed regeneration scheme called the Lower Kirkgate Townscape Heritage Initiative.
A Leeds City Council spokesperson said: “It is important to remember the situation on Lower Kirkgate is not of the council’s making, the owners of these privately-owned buildings allowed them to deteriorate into a state of collapse and then carried out wholly inadequate levels of works to protect these historical properties.
“After the owners refused to carry out any further works, the council has worked for months on careful planning and preparation to step in and now be in a position to begin stabilising these important heritage assets in the city centre.
“The work will address the significant current structural issues with the buildings, with the long-term ambition being to see them successfully brought back into meaningful use after a full restoration.
“We continue to explore options – including the potential use of compulsory purchase powers as a tool of last resort – as to how this restoration can be achieved.
“The council has previously made a market value offer – based on an independent valuation undertaken in line with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ Red Book Global Standards framework – for the buildings, but to date this has not been accepted. We remain in dialogue with the owner.
“This issue has been and continues to be very complex, and we thank the local community for their continued patience and support.”
