Is it time we addressed the elephant in the room?
In 2025, construction administrations made up 10% of all administrations, and this is forecast to continue through 2026. Since last November we have noticed the market go very quiet. In fact, in 26 years of trading this is the driest we’ve ever seen it.
Two giants of the industry have toppled and another two seem to have just lost their balance.
Ardmore, who have a portfolio of projects worth over 1bn, went under in June after facing liabilities of up £300m after a recent court case. There’s now a mad scramble to find replacements for them on their many projects across the capital, including the redevelopment of the In-and-Out Club site on Piccadilly, and at least 500 jobs could be impacted.
Another giant to fall has been Torsion Construction which, despite being named as a Sunday Times Best Place to Work in 2025, has just gone into administration. Also wobbling are Crest Nicholson, recently on the opposing side of Ardmore’s fatal court case, who have just reported a half-year loss of £35m, their revenue down 21% and their net debt doubling to £142m. Now, the latest casualty seems to be Avison Young who, two weeks ago, HMRC filed a winding-up petition against over a “historical tax obligation”. They are reported to have now paid this, and the petition is expected to be withdrawn, however this is still a concerning reflection of where things are. Although they are the seventh biggest UK Commercial Real Estate business, they posted a pre-tax loss of £101.8m in 2024 following a similar loss in 2023.
“these holes have come back to haunt them”
It seems that a lot of the companies who are now in the red, had problems already, but were still doing fine when the market winds were good. Now that the wind has died, it seems like these holes have come back to haunt them, as they no longer have the momentum to keep them from taking on water.
We’ve recently heard that even our own glass suppliers are just about clinging on, as they say a lot of the contractors who gave them business have gone bust.
“say no to poor contracts”
So how have we weathered the storm (so far)?
We are selective about our clients and will refuse low-margin work
We focus on repeat clients and we take our reputation seriously
This seems to mirror the trends seen in the few companies that are still doing well. These are businesses that have often been trading for 20-30 years, have mainly repeat clients, avoid speculative tendering, keep their overheads lean, maintain healthy cash reserves and say no to poor contracts.