Places for People’s £100m modular deal up in air following firm’s financial woes

Places for People is exploring alternatives to delivering homes through its £100m deal with troubled modular developer Ilke Homes.

The 231,000-home housing association agreed a joint venture with Ilke in 2019 to deliver 750 homes. Under the tie-up, homes would be manufactured in Ilke’s North Yorkshire factory and delivered on site.

But, following Ilke’s announcement this week that it has filed notice of its intent to appoint an administrator, Places for People said it is looking at alternative ways of delivering its homes on some of its sites.

Ilke modular

Ilke is supposed to be delivering more than 750 homes to Places for People over the coming years

It said in a statement: “We’ve taken delivery of more than 30 homes across three sites; we’d originally planned for more but over a much longer period of time.

“Our absolute priority now is delivering homes for our customers and we’re focused on doing this via a different route.”

It is believed the joint venture deal legally obliging Places for People to purchase 750 homes from Ilke remains in place.

Ilke’s filing of the notice on Tuesday this week is intended to protect the housebuilder, giving it 10 working days protection from creditors as it seeks to secure a sale or new investment.

Last week, Ilke said it was in talks with up to 15 investors regarding a sale but to date no deal has been inked.

Topics