A WARRINGTON homebuilder owed almost £12million to creditors before collapsing into administration.

Lane End Developments, based on Stockport Road in Thelwall, entered administration in April.

The firm, which has built more than 1,100 homes in the north west and it is believed to employ around 100 members of staff, is currently on-site on a string of projects.

It carried out work on a huge £16.3million scheme to build 100 affordable homes on Academy Way, formerly home to a Kwik Save, named Roebuck Plaza back in October.

The move into administration left fears that projects across the region would be unfinished, while specialist employment law experts were contacted by some staff to investigate compensation in relation to the redundancy process.

Jeremy Woodside and Frank Ofonagoro, of Quantuma Advisory Ltd, have been appointed as joint administrators.

An administrators report published on Companies House has now revealed that the construction firm owed 412 unsecured creditors a total of £11.8million.

One supplier alone was owed more than £800,000, while 26 others were left out of pocket by more than £100,000.

The report also states that Lane End had a turnover of more than £81million during the year to 31 May, 2022, with a pre-tax profit of just under £245,000.

However, the impact of the Covid pandemic and lockdowns was of great detriment to the business.

Administrators said: “In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lock downs led to significant delays on a number of projects as building sites were subjected to closures.

“Further lockdowns throughout 2020 and 2021 affected the reopening and developments of the sites.

“In addition to the closure of building sites, the lockdowns also caused significant difficulties in the supply of necessary building products.

“In addition to the deteriorating general economic conditions, delays and supply chain issues led to significant cost increases in raw materials across the industry.

“These cost increases and delays rendered many of the pre-pandemic contractual terms contained within the build contracts as unprofitable and unviable.”