Ministers consider public inquiry into Mack
Questions emerge over insurance
MINISTERS are considering establishing a public inquiry as questions emerged over whether Glasgow School of Art was properly insured before two major fires destroyed the Mackintosh Building and doubts mount over whether it will ever be restored.
The Scottish Government is giving “careful consideration” to a public examination of the scandal in the wake of The Herald’s series of investigations which revealed there has been more than 20 months of inertia over the Mack rebuild that is expected to add millions to the estimated costs of more than
£100 million.
The newly reappointed culture secretary Angus Robertson is currently contemplating the next steps.
The Scottish Government is coming under increasing pressure to act after Glasgow School of Art (GSA) admitted it is heading to arbitration with the company that insured the Mack over questions regarding whether it was covered in the wake of the 2018 blaze but insists that its faithful reinstatement will not be reconsidered.
GSA has confirmed there were insurance issues after The Herald revealed that a wrangle over the cover had contributed to issues with pursuing the rebuild.
In the wake of the blaze in June 2018, GSA said it was confident that their insurance would cover the costs of the project.
Investigations by The Herald revealed how attempts at the reinstatement of the masterpiece designed by renowned Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh had stalled, leading to serious questions about whether its restoration will ever be carried out.
Concerns have now escalated in the wake of GSA admitting that it is in dispute with its insurers and there are now calls for a public inquiry and Scottish Government involvement to resolve “the mess”.
The Herald previously revealed that a six-year failure to reach a settlement over a “complex” insurance claim following the fire that ravaged the Mack had contributed to the level of “inertia” over its restoration.
We revealed that a long-term inability to reach an agreement with insurers over a payout and a botch-up over the way the school’s board went about procuring experts to rebuild the Mackintosh Building after the 2018 fire have been key to what some see as the effective “suspension” of work on the
building. GSA refer to any insurance income received from the fire in its official financial records as a “contingent asset”, meaning that it is only a potential financial gain.
Now ministers have confirmed that it is considering calls for a probe into the issues surrounding the rebuild.
A Scottish Government source said: “The Scottish Government has welcomed the Glasgow School of Art’s plans for a faithful reinstatement of the Mackintosh Building.
“The Mackintosh Building is owned by the Glasgow School of Art, which is an autonomous body with responsibility for its own strategic and operational decision making.”
But the source added: “Careful consideration is ... being given to the call for a public inquiry, and the culture secretary will update the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee on any developments in this space”.
The June 2018 fire destroyed the building as it neared the end of a multi-million pound restoration project following an earlier blaze in May 2014.
While a design team was supposed to have been put in place by August 2022 that still has not happened, with hopes of getting any council planning approval for the project not expected until the spring of 2026, at the earliest, according to estimates based on GSA’S own projected schedule.
GSA has now said that it has chosen to enter into arbitration proceedings with its insurers.
The school’s board said: “Since June 2018, Glasgow School of Art has been working through the very complex insurance claim, supported by a team of external legal and insurance professionals.
“Following publication of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Fire Investigation Report in January 2022, insurers requested further information which Glasgow School of Art provided to enable them to confirm policy cover.
“In the absence of this confirmation, Glasgow School of Art has chosen to initiate arbitration.
“The arbitration process is subject to a confidentiality provision, which means that we are not able to disclose any further details.”
They confirmed that the cost of work to date has totalled around £18m and has been funded by interim payments from the insurers.
It is said that GSA is hoping to have a design team in place by July to identify the “appropriate route to delivery”.
As The Herald previously revealed, the restoration project will not be completed by the original 2030 deadline and is not expected to be completed within the next decade.
In the wake of the fire, GSA said that an insurance payout was key to cover the bill for rebuilding the Mack.
Then art school director Tom Inns said: “It will require a lot of resource, but that is why you have full building insurance.”
Then chairwoman of the board, Muriel Gray, said no further public funds would be required, and that rebuilding costs could be supported by insurance money, charitable funds and fundraising left over from the 2014 fire.
Professor Alan Dunlop, a leading architect who once put his hat in the ring to become chair of the GSA and is a stakeholder consultee for the project, said the latest twist shows that the board was “incompetently handling” the rebuild and feared that the project will never see the light of day.
“They won’t be able to rebuild without insurance,” he said. “You are talking of costs of over £100m and there are just so many issues relating to the costs of the whole thing.”
He believed that the Scottish Government should now intervene, adding: “We are not talking now about when it will complete but whether it will happen at all and the board should resign.”