West Northamptonshire Council faces 'multi-million pound problem' after major building firm's liquidation

PWC Building Control Services Ltd, a private company responsible for inspecting and reporting on the safety of developments, based near Towcester, has entered voluntary liquidation after its application for a new building control license was rejected. The firm, widely used in the county, has been accused of conducting substandard inspections and reporting.

A PWC spokesperson stated: “PWC Building Control Services Ltd has had to initiate steps to enter voluntary liquidation. We applied to the Building Safety Regulator to be included on the Building Control Approvers Register on February 1, 2024. Unfortunately, on August 1, we were informed that our application had failed. As a result, PWC cannot provide any building control functions. We will be issuing initial notice cancellations for all projects, which will be sent to the relevant local authority, with copies also sent to the applicants by email or letter.” These cancellation notices were supposed to be issued by August 28, but that has reportedly not happened.

The collapse of PWC has had a significant impact, leaving West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) to pick up the pieces. The council now faces the daunting task of inspecting and certifying hundreds, if not thousands, of construction sites across the region.

WNC was contacted by this newspaper in August about the situation but failed to share information on the issue. They have once again been contacted by this newspaper.

Mark Arnull, Director of XYZ Property Development Ltd, is among those affected. He has reached out to WNC’s CEO, Anna Earnshaw, but says he has received little information so far.

The 41-year-old said: “I’ve used PWC for years because the council has a notorious reputation for poor building control since it became WNC. Many people preferred PWC because they were more efficient than the council. PWC had the Northants area sewn up; they were favoured for their good reputation. But now, with their license not approved, we’re left in limbo.

“There are about 14,000 different documents affected by this across East and West Northants and Cheshire. That’s a lot of affected building sites—from small home extensions to my four-story development, and even larger projects. PWC had until August 28 to issue all the cancellation notices, but they’re insolvent.”

Explaining how the situation has personally impacted him and how it will likely affect many others in the same boat, Mark said: “We’re basically having our loan called in. We can’t get any more finance or continue our development. All I want is a timeline from the council so I can go to a lender and say it’s going to be X amount of weeks.

“It’s a multi-million pound problem that WNC now has to manage, and I don’t think they’re equipped to handle it. There’s no clear strategy to grow the department and address this quickly.

“Without a defined timeline, we can’t inform our lenders, and that puts us at risk of foreclosure. If that happens, we could be forced into liquidation, sell off assets to pay them back, and potentially lose our personal assets, including my home, to cover the shortfall.

“We need the council to define a timeline we can work to.”