Contract Administration in Tower Hamlets

A Tower Hamlets building contract needs a clear record of the employer's instructions and the contractor's obligations. This page focuses on the borough's construction-management and heritage interfaces. The London service page explains the wider appointment, including the distinction between a JCT contract administrator, an Employer's Agent and an NEC Project Manager.

HCS cannot act as independent contract administrator where HCS is the contractor. Confirm the appointment and executed form; NEC roles differ.

Scope and fees

Read the construction-management condition before tender

Tower Hamlets operates a Construction Management Plan service linked to planning conditions. Its guidance distinguishes the CMP, including traffic arrangements, from the Site Environmental Management Plan covering noise, air quality and waste. The council says requirements can also apply to minor developments depending on complexity. Establish what the actual permission requires before inviting a fixed programme from contractors. For contract administration, a useful record identifies the document owner, submission status and evidence of discharge.

Price the approved logistics, then record changes

The borough's CMP guidance includes site access, loading, parking suspensions, highway occupation and scaffold arrangements. Translate the approved approach into the tender information so that competing prices address the same delivery constraints. Ask how a revised loading arrangement would be raised, who must obtain any further approval and what evidence would support a contractual assessment. Keep the permission and the instruction distinct in the project file.

Use the conservation record for the actual building

Tower Hamlets provides an interactive conservation-area map and individual appraisals. Wapping Wall is a specific example: its appraisal describes nineteenth-century wharf and warehouse buildings and their riverside setting. It is not a description of every property in the borough. If the instructed building is in that area, compare the specification with the features identified in the appraisal and the permissions for the work. Record retained fabric, repair samples and decisions on replacement materials clearly.

Make concealed work and provisional allowances traceable

A warehouse conversion, an occupied block and a new building can require different investigation plans; the address label cannot establish what is hidden. Where existing fabric will be opened, set out who authorises access, the limits of the investigation and how findings reach the designer before a repair is instructed. Link any provisional allowance to a defined work item and retain the evidence used to value the eventual instruction.

Bring highway and adjoining-owner dependencies together

The council requires a temporary structure licence where scaffold or hoarding occupies the footway or carriageway. Its application process includes a site meeting to consider matters such as street furniture, closures and parking. Programme that process alongside any separate party wall requirements identified from the proposed drawings. For works affecting an occupied block, also request the client's access and resident-communication arrangements. The useful CA record is a dated list of dependencies and decisions, with responsibility assigned to each party.

JCT tender preparation: Tower Hamlets

A Tower Hamlets tender should name the actual block or terrace group before deciding how the JCT documents divide the work. For a Boundary Estate instruction, distinguish common-envelope repairs from fit-out inside an individual home and identify any commercial entrance that must remain usable. In the Jesus Hospital Estate examples, a parapet's appearance should not become an assumed roof quantity: supply a measured roof schedule. Compare bidders against those defined locations, including access and making good, and record who designs any replacement detail.

The council's Boundary Estate appraisal describes individually designed housing blocks around the central garden and radiating streets at Arnold Circus. It records mainly four- or five-storey housing alongside smaller workshop buildings. This is a defined estate layout, not a description of all Tower Hamlets flats.

Send the block name and the position of the flat within it, together with any plan of the common entrance and stair. If a repair programme is mentioned, request its actual scope and status. A well-presented flat interior does not answer the separate question of what has been inspected outside it. Keep any limitations on common-part access clear in the proposed instruction.

The Boundary Estate appraisal records shops on Calvert Avenue with workshops behind them. It also identifies ironwork, including gates, balconies and railings, as part of the estate's character.

Where the home sits above or beside commercial premises, ask how the residential entrance and rear access are separated. Ask which surfaces and connections can be examined safely and whether a previous repair record is available. If access requires coordination with a business occupier, explain that before the visit.

The Jesus Hospital Estate appraisal describes predominantly two-storey yellow-brick terraces with a continuous parapet in front of London roofs. It records the grouping around Jesus Green and distinguishes the gabled red-brick houses at the ends of Baxendale Street.

For a terrace behind a parapet, ask where the roof can be viewed and which internal hatch serves it. A level-looking street roofline does not show the complete drainage arrangement or the condition of hidden roof slopes. If a loft has been altered, obtain the associated drawings rather than treating the roof as untouched because the front parapet survives. The brief should distinguish the original roof form from work carried out behind it.

The Jesus Hospital Estate study describes a mixture of housing, workshops and warehouses around Ezra Street, including a warehouse adapted to industrial units and residential studios. That is a record of the study area at the time of appraisal. It should not be applied as the use history of every nearby home or as current approval evidence.

Check current requirements for the particular property and proposed work.

• Tower Hamlets: Construction Management Plan Service
• Tower Hamlets: scaffolding and hoarding licence
• Tower Hamlets: conservation areas and address map
• Tower Hamlets: Wapping Wall appraisal, pages 5–6
• GOV.UK: work requiring party wall notification
• Tower Hamlets: Boundary Estate Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Guidelines
• Tower Hamlets: Jesus Hospital Estate Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Guidelines

• Major works
• Tendering
• Clerk of Works
• Employer's Agent
• Insurance reinstatement

• Tower Hamlets area guide
• East London area hub

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