Council takes charge of £36million Derbyshire housing scheme after contractor goes bust

Woodhead Construction, which signed a four-year deal with Bolsover District Council to construct up to 400 homes as part of the multi-million pound Bolsover Homes scheme, revealed it was ceasing trading in a shock announcement yesterday (September 15).

In order to save the scheme, which includes sites at Langwith and Shirebrook, as well as a new heritage and wellbeing centre in Creswell, the council has chosen to take over a number of building contracts.

Leader Councillor Steve Fritchley said: “The key thing for me was to keep our building program going to ensure we deliver what we said we would.

“We have therefore employed the current site managers where appropriate and are talking to the sub-contractors to ensure they are fully engaged to make sure the projects continue.

“Once we learned the contractor was to cease trading we took swift and decisive action to ensure our assets were protected and we could continue to deliver what we had set out to do.

“I am a big believer in the council being in control of its own destiny so we are putting into place plans to ensure we have more control of our future residential and commercial projects.”

At the end of July this year, Woodhead Construction announced it was celebrating the two-year half-way point of its Bolsover Homes contract, having built only 37 homes, with 89 in construction or under contract.

A spokesman for the council has confirmed these numbers are still correct, explaining that the building project had been delayed because of the pandemic.

They said the remaining 200 or so homes were currently still in the design or planning stage and being worked on by officers.

The spokesman added: “We have not incurred any financial losses and we have no money tied up with Woodhead Construction.”

The Edwinstowe-based firm is believed to employ around 150 people.