London’s Ealing Council is set to bulldoze 105 part-built affordable homes after concluding it is cheaper to start again than salvage schemes left stranded by Henry Construction’s collapse.

The homes were being delivered under a £40m contract awarded in January 2022 to build Passivhaus-standard housing across six small infill sites in Greenford, Southall and West Ealing.

Work began later that year but ground to a halt in June 2023 when Henry Construction went into administration, leaving blocks partially completed and in some cases close to handover.

After detailed structural and financial assessments, the council has now decided demolition offers a “more cost effective and better long-term solution” than attempting to restart works where the contractor left off.

At the time of the collapse, the authority said it was committed to completing the projects. That position has now changed as viability pressures bite and remediation risks mount.

A council spokesperson said that in-depth assessments had led it to conclude that demolishing some of the existing, partly built structures would provide a more cost-effective and better long-term solution than attempting to restart building.