He steps in after work stops because Jarvis ran into financial strife

A FORMER director of the troubled construction firm Jarvis is involved in the new company in charge of the Whittington Hospital’s troubled £30m new wing project – which stalled when original contractors Jarvis ran into financial difficulties – the New Journal can reveal.
The new City investment company, Secondary Market Infrastructure Fund (SMIF), promised that despite problems in the past, work would re-start on the wing to replace old wards in “a matter of weeks”.
Originally Jarvis won the contract to design, build and maintain the new wing under a controversial Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal in October 2002 to replace wards built in the 19th century.
But work stopped on the project in December when sub-contractors walked off the site after Jarvis revealed it had run out of cash.
Frantic behind-the-scenes talks over the last few weeks culminated in a late night meeting at the Whittington on Friday with the announcement that the hospital had decided to allow SMIF to take over the project from cash-strapped construction firm Jarvis from Saturday – as revealed in the New Journal last week.
But while Jarvis will be handing over its shares in the project to SMIF, sources revealed that a Jarvis construction company is still on board to complete the construction of the new building.
Meanwhile hospital bosses revealed that a special sub-committee, made up of Trust chairman Narendra Makanji, finance director Susan Sorensen and two non-executive board members had been set up in December to handle negotiations for the hospital.
According to a Trust spokeswoman, the new building will now be completed “as specified”, meaning that there would be no changes to the original proposal and no additional costs for the Trust.
It is now expected to be completed in the autumn – over a year later than expected.
Alan Birch, an executive director with SMIF and an ex-Jarvis man of 17 years told the New Journal that more staff would be taken on by SMIF to manage the project to ensure the new building is finished on time.
SMIF is a limited company set up by two senior partners, ex Abbey National (now Abbey) executive Bill Doughty and Paddy Williams from construction firm Babcock and Brown.
Chair of the hospital Trust Narendra Makanji said there was no problem with some members of the new firm coming from Jarvis. He said: “It really doesn’t matter to me if he is an ex-Jarvis man, an ex Balfour Beatty man or from any other construction firm – the fact is he knows the project and the business and the pressures we are under to get the job done.”
David Sloman, the chief executive of the Whittington NHS Trust said: “We have been working very hard over the last few weeks on negotiating this agreement.
“I am delighted that we can now look forward with certainty to the opening of our new building, which will offer excellent facilities for our patients and staff.”