UK practices are owed millions for Libyan work

British architects are still owed millions of pounds for work they did on Libyan projects that stalled during last year’s civil war.
Dozens of staff were also made redundant when the conflict brought work to a halt.

Although the UN unfroze £100 billion of Libyan assets in December there is no sign that this will result in quick settlements.
“It will be a fairly slow process,” said David Lawrence, managing director of London practice BFLS which worked on a hotel in the country and hopes to venture back later this year.

He said what his practice was owed was “nothing catastrophic” because it had no live projects by the time the conflict started.
Others were not so lucky. BD understands one small UK firm alone is owed a seven-figure sum.

And Brighton-based Camillin Denny, which made six people redundant when war broke out in February, is owed hundreds of thousands from four projects.

The practice had worked in Libya for six years, on schemes including 15 university faculties, the Tripoli heritage museum with Metropolitan Workshop, and Oasis, a cities tourism project masterplanned by Rem Koolhaas.

“We were just about to get paid for our work in three of the Oasis cities when the conflict started and payment was stopped,” said co-founder Mark Camillin.

“We’re owed £100,000 on that. It’s not a show-stopping amount but for a small practice like ours it does affect your cash flow hugely. We suddenly lost a really good source of work and had to make five or six redundancies in February to reflect that.”

Sidell Gibson, which is hoping to restart work in Tripoli in the next few weeks, let go a dozen staff. And Zaha Hadid Architects blamed 76 job losses last year on the uprisings in Libya and Egypt. Work on its People’s Congress in Tripoli, alongside Camillin Denny’s heritage museum, was among the affected projects.

Camillin said: “Quite a few British and European architects are owed money. It must run into the millions. We owe five or six consultants ourselves, including Consarc Architects.”

The practice negotiated “pay when paid” contracts because the Libyans were notoriously slow — if ultimately reliable — payers.
Clients have assured Camillin he will be paid but are unable to say when. He believes money has been allocated but needs to be unfrozen by the Libyan Central Bank.