Construction firm involved in major garden village development with housing association collapses

The scheme appears to have been delayed as construction was originally due to start in 2019. However, Tolent only announced last summer that work was kicking off. 

Sarah Robson, director of development and regeneration at Karbon, told Inside Housing that the association is currently “working to understand the implications” of Tolent’s administration to “determine the best way forward”. 

Newcastle-based 30,000-home Karbon also has Tolent as contractor on “a small number” of other projects, which are also being assessed, she added.

Meanwhile, Inside Housing understands that Home Group does not have Tolent as contractor on any of its jobs. 

Administrators Interpath Advisory partly blamed Tolent’s problems on one of its other major contracts – the £85.5m Milburngate mixed-use development in Durham – which had become “significantly loss-making” and affected the firm’s working capital.

The 450,000sqft scheme includes plans for 153 luxury flats and a 92-bed Premier Inn hotel.

Tolent had been trading as a company for 40 years. 

James Lumb, managing director at Interpath Advisory and joint administrator, said Tolent had been “battling severe headwinds, including spiralling costs, labour shortages and also the loss of other companies within its supply chain, all of which unfortunately resulted in one of its major contracts becoming loss-making”.

He added: “In a sector which typically operates on wafer-thin margins, this can often prove to be insurmountable and, unfortunately, so has been the case for Tolent.”

Mr Lumb said the firm will work with key stakeholders to assess options, including dealing with ongoing contracts and live projects.

Ninety-one of Tolent’s staff have been kept on while the possibility of a sale of the businesses and its assets are explored, the administrators said.

Tolent has offices in Leeds, Stockton-on-Tees and Shotton Colliery, as well as its Gateshead head office.  

As little ago as last week, Tolent announced it had launched a retrofit and decarbonisation service for social housing landlords. At the time of the announcement, the firm said it was already underway on a “number of retrofitting projects”. 

In 2015, Tolent launched a joint venture with Sunderland-based Gentoo, known as Gentoo Tolent, to target residential work in the region. 

However, less than a year after its launch, Gentoo sold its 50% stake to Tolent. The company was renamed Tolent Living.