A contractor that took Home Group to court over a £7.7m payment dispute is set to enter administration.

ISG, a £2bn-turnover construction, fit-out and engineering firm, has announced it will file for administration after attempts to find a buyer for the business failed.

Isg

The company earlier this year took housing association Home Group to the High Court, alleging it owed the firm money for works carried out a 56-home development on Watford High Street in 2014.

Home Group last month hit back at ISG, describing the firm’s £7.7m claim ‘spurious’ and ‘poorly-evidenced’. Will Gardner, executive director of asset and development at Home Group, said it struggled throughout” with ISG.

The Watford scheme was expected to take around 16 months to complete, according to Home Group, but instead reached practical completion in 2022, six years behind schedule. In February this year the housing association stated it owed the contractor just £718,000 for the works, less than 10% of the £7.7m ISG claims it is due.

It is not clear whether administrators appointed to ISG are likely to continue pursuing the claim through the High Court. The case is one of eight which ISG has been involved in since the start of 2024.

ISG has completed several residential jobs but its primary focus is on other sectors, including commercial offices and retails works and public sector projects, such as work on prisons.

Its housing activity includes working on a 139-home Marylebone Village Estate scheme and building a 35-storey student accommodation scheme in the City of London called Chapter Spitalfields.