Properties England might lose as much as £9.2m from the administration of Stewart Milne Group.
Manchester-based Stewart Milne Properties North West England (Developments) Ltd went into administration on 12 January and has a special administrator to that of the remainder of the housebuilding group, which folded four days earlier.
The English arm of the Aberdeen-headquartered group acquired a sequence of loans from Properties England since 2018 – with the taxpayer-funded housing company nonetheless owed £9.2m by the enterprise.
A press release from BDO, the administrator for Stewart Milne Properties North West England (Developments) Restricted, stated Properties England “needs to think about methods for the corporate with BDO separate to the administrations of the opposite seven corporations within the wider group”.
Stewart Milne’s English division operated 4 websites in Lancashire and Cheshire – at Broughton, Congleton, Hooton and Warton – which all acquired funding from the federal government’s housing company.
The Stewart Milne Group had been up for sale since April 2022 and its accounts for the 12 months to 31 October 2022 famous there was uncertainty that it could proceed as a going concern because of this – though Properties England made no additional loans to the group after it was placed on sale, Building Information understands.
A spokesperson for Properties England stated: “We’re conscious that almost all of the Stewart Milne Group of corporations have been positioned in administration on 8 January 2024. We’re additionally conscious that the English subsidiary, which Properties England has a relationship with, was positioned in administration on 12 January 2024.
“Our quick precedence is to work with the administrator to help the continued supply, the place potential, of these energetic housing developments which is able to, sooner or later, realise the worth of the corporate property.”
Matthew Tait, one of many joint directors from BDO, stated: “This administration is at a really early stage. Nonetheless, our current intention is to work intently with Properties England and different stakeholders in addition to administration and workers, to develop a method that ends in the continued supply, the place it’s potential in keeping with our duties to collectors, of the corporate’s 4 housing developments.”
In October 2023, it emerged that Properties England would solely obtain 0.1 per cent of the £69m it was owed by collapsed modular builder Ilke Properties, which went below a number of months earlier than.
A year earlier it was hit by the collapse of Home by City Splash, into which it had pumped £30m, and owned a 4 per cent stake. CN understands it was in a position to recuperate £27m of the cash.
In April 2020 it partnered with Inland Properties to develop greater than 600 properties on a Properties England-owned website in Basildon, Essex. The housebuilder collapsed in September 2023 earlier than the venture was full. Talks are ongoing about promoting property owned by the housebuilder to Properties England.
DRS Bond Administration managing director Chris Davies stated: “There isn’t a query that building and housebuilding are usually not in one of the best form for the time being, however I believe Properties England wants to take a look at the factors that they use in assessing who they’re lending to.
“They should recognise that they need to be delivering worth for cash, and if items aren’t getting constructed as a result of the entity to which they’ve superior cash has collapsed, that’s problematic.”
The remainder of the Stewart Milne Group, run by former Aberdeen Soccer Membership chairman Stewart Milne, operated in Scotland and its administration is being carried out by Teneo. The housebuilder and developer was based in 1975.
On the time of its final accounts, the £172.4m-turnover group owed £114.3m to banks and £23.8m to commerce collectors.
