Deal will see a third of sites and social housing business continue

Northern housebuilder McInerney Homes has gone into administration following a long fight to re-finance through the recession.

Administrators KPMG were appointed yesterday at seven companies within the Irish-owned builder, which turned over just £39.8m in 2009, a huge drop from the height of the boom.

Fourteen of the firm’s 161 staff have been laid off immediately upon the administration, with a number of others being consulted on to transfer to other companies within parent company McInerney Holdings Plc.

The seven collapsed firms encompass 32 development sites, of which ten will be immediately transferred another McInerney company, Ludgate Hill Developments, which has signed a deal with a major housebuilder to build out the sites.

In addition the Wigan-based firm’s social housing business will be bought out by the company’s management, subject to meeting a number of undisclosed conditions.

Richard Heis, joint administrator and restructuring partner at KPMG, said, “The economic downturn, particularly in respect of the UK residential property market, has had a severe detrimental impact on the group’s cash flow therefore limiting its ability to trade without substantial additional finance.

“Our overriding objective is to ensure that work on the majority of the live private development sites is able to continue in order to maximise value in the interests of all the creditors. We are therefore delighted to have assisted in establishing the agreement between Ludgate Hill Developments Limited and a major housebuilder to build out these sites.”

The seven companies put in administration are McInerney Group Limited; McInerney Homes Limited; Alexander Developments (North-east) Limited; Lancing Homes Limited; Gold Homes (The Wave) Limited; William Hargreaves Limited and Bowey Homes Limited.

McInerney Homes had offices in Durham, Leeds, Wolverhampton and Northampton, with development sites around the North-east, North-west, Midlands and Yorkshire.

In McInerney Homes’ most recent accounts it made a loss of £8.5m on turnover of £39.8m, and then had to write down the value of its land by a further £56.3m. It also had £77.7m of unpaid bank loans.

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