Inland Homes administrators rule out rescue for any part of the business

The administrators assigned to review Inland Homes’ financial situation have concluded that none of the 20 companies within its group can be saved due to insufficient working capital to sustain daily trading operations.

The administrators have said that they will instead strive to achieve objective ‘b’ of the Insolvency Act 1986. This involves ensuring that the company’s creditors receive a better outcome than they would if the company were to be wound up without first being in administration.

David Hudson and Phillip Lewis Armstrong were appointed as administrators of Inland Homes Plc and 19 of its subsidiary companies between 4 October and 6 October 2023.

The administrators’ report states that three subsidiaries, Aston Clinton Developments, Inland Homes 2013 and modular business Hugg Homes, may lack adequate assets and property to facilitate a distribution to all unsecured creditors.

However, secured or preferential creditors will be paid by selling assets from the three subsidiaries.

At the time that the administrators were appointed, an Inland Homes subsidiary, Basildon Developments had £3.15m in its bank account, and Inland Limited had just over £769,000, while Hugg Homes and Inland Homes Developments Limited had £1,289 and £1,473 in cash assets respectively. 

A statement of affairs published on 4 December notes that Inland Homes has a deficit of £1.25m in regards to the total assets available to unsecured creditors and its estimated overall deficit is £292.3m. 

The administrators’ report states that builder and developer W E Black is owed £1.3m under their fixed charge, but Inland Homes will not be able to repay this charge in full.

Ire Security, also known as Ingenious, is owed £4.6m under their fixed and floating charge. The administrators expect that Ingenious will fully recover this charge once assets are sold.

Inland Finance owes HSBC £11.4m. The report said that HSBC may make a full recovery of the £11.4m once assets from Inland’s company Appletree Farm Cressing are sold.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) council has a legal claim over land at Carter’s Quay where they were due to deliver a joint venture with Inland partnerships.

The report states that discussions are ongoing between BCP council and Inland Partnerships, but that the outcome for the council remains uncertain.

It is expected that Inland Homes will be able to pay unpaid pension contributions totalling £64,000 and redundancy claims of around £59,000.

HMRC is owed £353,000 in respect of PAYE, which the reports states will be paid.

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In regards to asset disposals, Wilton Park in Beaconsfield contains several land parcels and is subject to planning approval for 98 residential units and a café and nursery, as well as 22 units owned by Inland Property Limited. The administrators have engaged with Knight Frank to market and sell the whole site.

Basildon Developments Limited (BDL), a subsidiary of Inland Homes, owns some plots of land at Gardiners Park in Basildon, part of a wider development site owned by Homes England.

BDL and Homes England agreed that the latter will purchase the land and a partner will be identified to help Homes England develop the 620-unit scheme.

The Meridian in Southampton consists of two completed blocks of flats (Block A and Block B) and one partially completed block (Block C), which together offer a total of 40 residential units.

The property is owned by Inland Finance and Inland Lifestyle and some of the units have already been sold, while others are expected to be sold soon. Inland Finance also owns the freehold on this land, which will be sold off.