Laing O'Rourke to run down its housing arm

Laing O’Rourke is mothballing its loss-making housing business Explore Living due to “continuing uncertainty” in the UK housebuilding market.

The UK’s largest private contractor said it is completing only those developments currently on site and will pause any future phases until market confidence improves.

Laing O’Roruke said it expected this period of inactivity to extend “for a minimum of two years” due to the government’s austerity measures and the scarcity of mortgage lending.

Staff will be transferred to other parts of the business where possible, with a small number of redundancies.

The division’s chairman Paul Healey and managing director Karl Pickering are departing the business.

Laing O’Rourke is mothballing its loss-making housing business Explore Living due to “continuing uncertainty” in the UK housebuilding market.

The UK’s largest private contractor said it is completing only those developments currently on site and will pause any future phases until market confidence improves.

Laing O’Roruke said it expected this period of inactivity to extend “for a minimum of two years” due to the government’s austerity measures and the scarcity of mortgage lending.

Staff will be transferred to other parts of the business where possible, with a small number of redundancies.

Explore Living made a loss of £3.5m on a turnover of £19m for the year ending 31^st March 2011. It lost £6.5m off a turnover of £33.8m the previous year.

The firm said in a statement: “As projects complete on their current phases of work, Explore Living employees will be transferred onto other projects elsewhere within the Group where it is feasible for them to do so. 

“However, an unfortunate consequence will be that a small number of redundancies will result from this decision, although we will seek to minimise the impact on affected individuals to the greatest extent possible.”

The firm added its Explore Investments and PFI Investments subsidiaries were unaffected by the decision.

Explore Living made a loss of £3.5m on a turnover of £19m for the year ending 31^st March 2011. It lost £6.5m off a turnover of £33.8m the previous year.

The firm said in a statement: “As projects complete on their current phases of work, Explore Living employees will be transferred onto other projects elsewhere within the Group where it is feasible for them to do so. 

“However, an unfortunate consequence will be that a small number of redundancies will result from this decision, although we will seek to minimise the impact on affected individuals to the greatest extent possible.”

The firm added its Explore Investments and PFI Investments subsidiaries were unaffected by the decision.