Administration for Ardmore firm extended until August 2027

The administration period for Ardmore Construction Ltd has been extended until August next year, filings made at Companies House have revealed.

The move means the process has been stretched out by just under a year to 3 August 2027.

Ardmore Construction Ltd, which was set up in 1974 and had a turnover of £313m, went into administration last August appointing Begbies Traynor as administrator.

Parent company Ardmore Group later said the extension of liability for building safety work to three decades made under the Building Safety Act led directly to the subsidiary’s collapse.

In results published last week, Ardmore Group racked up a pre-tax loss of £42m for the year to September 2024.

Ardmore Group said its 2024 loss “arose from a combination of trading losses on certain construction projects, costs associated with remedial works, and the impact of an adjudication award in respect of the Crown Heights project. The adjudication resulted in an award of approximately £15m against Ardmore Construction Limited (ACL).”

Crown Heights is a block of flats in Basingstoke, Hampshire, completed in 2004 for Barratt and which is now having its cladding replaced because of fire safety worries.

The £15m ruling, made in December 2024 and which centred over who was responsible for fire safety defects, was a landmark and following the decision in favour of BDW Trading – Barratt’s main trading arm – ACL went into administration at the end of August last year.

In its latest results, the group admitted legacy jobs carried out by the now closed construction arm have resulted in “multiple claims for the Ardmore Group of companies”.

It added: “The Group believes it holds strong positions on many claims. However, given the ongoing evolution of legislation and guidance, it remains difficult to determine outcomes with sufficient certainty. Where claims are successful, the financial impact is likely to be partially mitigated through subsequent claims on the supply chain and/or other parties.”

Ardmore Group said it expects to make a profit for the year to September 2025 of around £11m.