Homes England takes big hit on Ilke

Papers filed with Companies House to formally liquidate the modular homes company confirm that the housing body will only receive a fraction of the £68m it is owed.

Ilke Homes was placed into administration in June this year, perhaps the largest casualty in what has been a torrid time for the modular sector. AlixPartners was appointed as administrator on 30 June.

Homes England is the only secured creditor, but is expected to receive only £82,000 – from sales of plant and machinery – of the £68.8m it provided to the company in various ways.

Preferential creditors are listed as HMRC, which is owed £2.1m, and employee claims, amounting to around £724,000. At the date of AlixPartners’ appointment, unsecured creditors were owed around £249m.

Prior to AlixPartners’ appointment, Ilke had ceased trading, pausing all building work at sites and bringing to a halt the production of modules in its Knaresborough factory.

Ilke had been founded in 2017 as one of several major moves into the modular sector, with L&G a noted investor – the institution announced in May this year that it would exit the market, after six straight years of losses. Another business backed by Homes England, House by Urban Splash, had called in administrators in May 2022.

Ilke had similarly always struggled to make it into the black, posting an annual loss of around £40m in January 2022

Almost all of the 1,061 employees were immediately made redundant on the administrator’s appointment, with just 22 staff retained for a short period. Ilke had worked from the Maximus building at Harworth Estates’ Flaxby Moor development, remaining until 22 September.

There were three live sites at the time of administration, in Stockton-on-Tees, Moreton-in-Marsh in the Cotswolds, and in Milton Keynes – all parties involved immediately exited their contracts.

Investigations into the conduct of Ilke directors have been held, concluding that there are no matters requiring further action.