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Homes England remains committed to MMC despite being owed £68m by Ilke Homes
Collapsed modular house builder Ilke Homes owed over £68m to Homes England and £227m to equity investors, administration documents have shown.
Homes England invested £30m in the private equity-owned firm as recently as September 2021, however in total, Ilke owed £68,175,814 to the government agency, according to updates on Companies House.
Administrators Alix Partners posted reports last week for the house builder’s three companies: Ilke Homes, Ilke Homes Land and Ilke Homes Holdings, which together had net debts of £319m.
As well as the Homes England funding, Ilke owed £249m to unsecured creditors.
Of this, £227m consisted of inter-company debts associated with losses suffered by equity investors, which included The Guinness Partnership, TDR Capital, Sun Capital and Fortress Investment Group.
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Ilke also owed its sub-contractors and suppliers around £17m, £2.2m to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and £724,614 to staff.
The modular house builder only had £26,062 in cash when the business collapsed in June. The administrator expected its remaining assets to fetch just over £780,000.
However, these figures may have been affected following reports of the theft of equipment from Ilke’s shuttered Yorkshire factory last month.
Sister company Ilke Homes Land owed £14m to sub-contractors and suppliers, £21.4m in inter-company debt, and £7.7m to its first ranking secured creditor.
This is in addition to £3.9m to other creditors, £43,258 to employees and £279,743 to HMRC. It held £1.36m in cash and £1.73m in land assets.
Finally, Ilke Homes Holdings had £92.8m in debts and held £31,200 in cash.
Ilke was the second modular house builder that Homes England invested in to collapse after House by Sekisui and Urban Splash, which fell into administration in May 2022.
A spokesperson for Homes England said: “A core part of our remit is to support the creation of a more resilient, diverse and innovative housing sector, and investing in MMC [modern methods of construction] is an important part of that.
“MMC has the potential to deliver more high-quality, energy-efficient homes faster and reduce waste, while addressing traditional construction labour shortages.
“There is always an inherent risk when investing in new technologies with new business models that look to do things differently, but we remain committed to encouraging greater use of MMC, supporting its growth and diversifying the housing market.”
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