Contractor ‘explored all feasible options’ to avoid administration of modular house builder

A spokesperson for the contractor said: “A & E Elkins Ltd T/A Elkins Construction [was] appointed by the Royal Borough of Greenwich in 2019 to deliver modular housing schemes under a term-alliance contract.

“Elkins [was] in contract with Modpods International on two schemes, Sam Manners and The Brooks. Throughout the delays and complications of these schemes, Elkins provided various means of support, including cashflow assistance.

“Upon discovering Modpod’s further financial issues, Elkins explored all feasible options with Modpods to avoid their administration and to get the schemes delivered.

“Modpods entering into administration has been a disappointing and challenging outcome for all involved.

“Elkins [is] now working with the Royal Borough of Greenwich on solutions to complete the schemes as quickly as possible.”

A spokesperson for Greenwich Council stressed that Modpods had been appointed to work on the two schemes by Elkins, not the council.

They said: “Modpods is not contracted by the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and Greenwich Builds uses a variety of contractors to add diversity and manage risk across its programme.

“One of our contractors, Elkins Construction, had appointed Modpods to deliver the homes on two of our Greenwich Builds sites at Sam Manners and The Brooks, which are currently affected.”

Last month, the council told Inside Housing that Modpods’ insolvency was “frustrating news that sadly will delay delivery of some of our new council homes”.

It said the council was “working with Elkins to understand how it will manage the impact of Modpods’ administration and agree a solution to getting the homes built as soon as possible”.

The council had been working with Modpods on two sites through its Greenwich Builds programme.

Sam Manners House comprised 32 homes, including eight houses, and was due to complete this year. The Brooks comprised 80 homes, including 58 family homes and 22 flats, and had a development value of £32m.

Modpods appointed administrators on 12 August. All 122 staff members were made redundant on 11 July when no buyer was found for the Coventry-based business.

Modpods’ administrators, KRE Corporate Recovery, said that relocating the builder’s trading premises had been “significantly more costly and took much longer to finalise than anticipated”. Modpods had sought to find a new factory to scale up building to 1,200 homes a year.

The relocation delays resulted in the company being closed for “a number of months”, putting “significant pressure” on its cashflow and a dispute issue with an existing client, KRE said.

The administrators also blamed “extremely difficult trading circumstances” for the collapse.

Modpods is the latest modular house builder to fold after a torrid few years for offsite developers. Last year, Ilke Homes and Legal & General Modular Homes collapsed, while House by Urban Splash, a joint venture between developer Urban Splash, Japan’s Sekisui House and Homes England, went into administration in 2022.

Earlier in August, TopHat, another modular builder, narrowly avoided two winding-up petitions from a developer after it settled out of court. The legal actions were launched on 1 July by Yorkshire-based developer Harworth, which is a creditor of TopHat.