REVEALED: Major Northants building control firm owes £10.7 million to 14,000 creditors as reasons for collapse emerge
A major Northants building firm plunged into voluntary liquidation owes £10.7 million to 14,000 creditors, according to latest reports.
PWC Building Control Services Ltd went into voluntary liquidation in August. Based near Towcester, the firm was a major player in Northamptonshire for inspecting and reporting on building safety.
A report released on Friday (September 6) by BRI Insolvency, and seen by Chronicle & Echo, shows that the company owes more than £10.7 million to more than 14,000 creditors.
The company collapsed after its essential trading license was not renewed, a decision that came as a “complete shock”, according to the report.
PWC Building Control Services Ltd had grown significantly in recent years, reaching more than £6 million in turnover in 2022 and employing more than 40 people, according to the report.
However, the company faced problems with its license renewal. Despite their efforts to address issues and make necessary improvements, they were told on November 15, 2023 that their license would be withdrawn.
The report explains: “The license renewal process was prolonged, and the company thought it was making the necessary improvements as required by the building control regulator, CICAIR.”
Things were further complicated by new laws that introduced the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) on 1 October 2023, which replaced CICAIR and took over from 1 April 2024. Despite continued efforts to meet the new standards, the BSR decided on June 14, 2024 not to include the company on its register. This made liquidation “inevitable”, according to the report, as the company could not operate without being registered.
Directors Mark Mitton and Kevin Boddington knew the situation was serious months ago. They tried to appeal the license decision through a hearing on February 27, 2024, with the decision received on March 11, 2024. They also sought a judicial review, but the High Court could not address it before the license expired on March 25, 2024. Despite these efforts, the company’s situation worsened, according to the report.
The BRI Insolvency Report reveals that the BSR’s final decision on August 1, 2024 not to register PWC forced the company to cancel its contracts with remaining clients, ending its operations. This has left creditors, employees, and contractors dealing with the fallout.
The report states: “On August 1, 2024, the BSR informed the company it would not be put on the register, stating it had not made enough improvements since the CICAIR decision. This made liquidation unavoidable as the company couldn’t trade without being on the register. The company had to, and did, serve cancellation notices on all its remaining clients within 28 days of the BSR decision.”
The collapse of PWC has had a big impact, with West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) now having to manage and certify hundreds, if not thousands, of construction sites across the region.
A WNC spokeswoman said: “Building control is a service that is offered both in the public and private sector and whilst it is really unfortunate that people have been affected by this, the Council has limited resource and will in the first instance need to ensure that existing customers receive the service they have already paid for.
“We are looking to increase resources; however, this is a challenging market and recruitment in the past has proven difficult due to a lack of qualified people in this specific area. This is a national issue, as is the impact of the PWC closure, and although their headquarters are in Towcester, much of their work will have been in other local authority areas. We will of course seek to establish any challenges from the former customers of PWC and will try to prioritise businesses which are experiencing particular issues.
“The council however cannot be held responsible for any changes in the market or guarantee that work already progressed will be automatically taken forward.”
Mark Arnull, Director of XYZ Property Development Ltd, is among the 14,000 affected.
The 41-year-old said: “PWC had a large presence the Northants area covered; they were trusted for their good reputation, although we had no idea they had been sanctioned previously, and this was about to happen."
"There are over 14,000 consumers affected by this insolvency That’s a lot of affected building sites—from small home extensions to my four-story development, and even larger projects.” Ultimately, those affected will now have to pay the full building control fees again to their respective local authorities, against a very small dividend from the liquidation.
"I was grateful on Friday to be contacted by a senior officer from WNC and thank them for their candour. Whilst they can understandably offer no timeline to resolve the issue, I am assured that recruitment of new inspectors is taking place to upscale the department, and that reversion applications are being processed for those like us, that have work commenced but not completed."