It has emerged that Lendlease is preparing to take Haringey Council to court over the Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV), a GBP2 billion (US$2.54 billion) housing PPP project that was awarded to Lendlease in 2017 but cancelled last month by the council.

Lendlease has written to the council warning of the potential for judicial review of the authority’s actions and that it is keeping its legal options open. The company claims that the report by the council's cabinet that influenced the cancellation contained “fundamental flaws” and that it was not given opportunity to address the issues raised before the vote to cancel.

Lendlease is demanding that the cabinet must, as a minimum, agree to discuss options for the project through legal teams before committing to the cancellation, otherwise legal action would be taken. The company claims that this would be necessary to protect its interests, especially given that its investment in the project to date is over GBP5 million (US$6.36 million).

However, Haringey Council argues that the cancellation process was “considered and fair” and that it is liable for only GBP520,275 (US$661,356) of Lendlease's costs.