Hope for half-built city estate

DEVELOPMENT WILL BE FINISHED DESPITE STAKEHOLDER GOING OUT OF BUSINESS OWING £33M

- WILLIAM TELFORD

RESIDENTS on a half-built Plymouth housing estate have been told work to finish it will go ahead despite a company going out of business owing £33m. Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) said it is seeking assurances from Halsall Homes after planning to give that company its share of the Silver Hill scheme, at Tamerton Foliot, for a "nominal fee" and leaving it to find another firm to complete the work.

PCH subsidiary Plymouth ComHomes Regeneration (PCHR) had been building the 38-house development in a joint | venture with Halsall Homes. But work stopped early this year and the sister company carrying out the building work, Halsall Construction Ltd, collapsed into administration.

Now called HC Realisations 2024 Ltd, it already faces claims amounting to £33.348m from unsecured creditors.

PCH is now working with lawyers on a deal to hand over its stake in the development to Halsall Homes, which is still trading. Halsall Homes, part of the Bath-based Shepperton Group, will then look for a new subcontractor to finish construction.

The Herald reported in April how work had stopped on the 38-house development leaving "gutted" residents in 17 completed homes feeling "left in the lurch" PCH has now said it was "sympathetic" and was seeking "judicious clauses" in its deal with Halsall Homes to ensure the estate was finished and any defects in already constructed homes were put right.

But it stressed it could not take over the development for economic and regulatory reasons. Nick Jackson, PCH's executive director of business services and development, said: "Since Halsall Construction went into administration in May, we have been in ongoing discussions with Halsall Homes, our partner in the joint venture for Silver Hill, to agree a way forward to ensure the development can be completed.