Rydon is set to lose at least £5.7m from a housing firm that went under last year.
The housing giant was owed at least £5.7m when Real LSE filed for administration last September, but is now unlikely to see a penny after a late claim from HMRC, according to an update from Real’s administrators.
Cowgills, which was appointed to oversee Real’s administration, said it had expected to be able to distribute funds to Rydon’s regeneration arm, and that some money could also have been available for unsecured creditors.
But in the statement, Cowgills said HMRC had submitted a secondary preferential claim of around £12,000. If verified, the claim will be paid out to HMRC first.
“Following the receipt of [the] secondary preferential claim from HMRC, it is not anticipated that there will be sufficient funds to enable a distribution to the secured creditors [Rydon Regeneration and Rydon Group],” Cowgills said.
Rydon is likely to be owed more than the £5.7m due to its regeneration arm, as the administrators have not yet established how much Rydon Group as a whole is owed.
Cowgills’ latest report also revealed that Real LSE owed more than £14m to unsecured creditors when it went under. So far, Cowgills has received 113 claims from unsecured creditors worth a combined £10.7m.
It is yet to receive claims from an additional 125 creditors for £3.6m, it said.
Real LSE was a subsidiary of Real Group, focusing on projects in London and the South East of England.
Real Group launched in early 2021 following the acquisition of the London, South East and South West branches of Rydon Construction. The group is headed by Paul Nicholls, previously the managing director of residential at Wates.
The firm had ongoing contracts with local authorities, housing associations and private clients for the construction of housing-led developments. According to the administrators, Real LSE was working on five live contracts and had two additional contracts in the preconstruction stage when it collapsed.
In its previous update, Cowgills said it had been advised that “clients would likely submit disputes, pay-less notices and counterclaims as a result of the unfinished works”, but did not comment on that in the latest report.
