Hotel contractor enters administration

Former Charlton Homes owner, Paul Bolton, has placed his Wigan-based national building contractor Denizen Contracts into administration after failing to turn around the business he founded in 2010.

Bolton was chairman and the largest shareholder of the business, which specialised in building hotels. Denizen delivered several contracts for Sanguine Hospitality, established in 2006 by Bolton and hotelier Simon Matthews-Williams. Sanguine has since been acquired by Interstate and is unaffected by Denizen's situation.

A spokesman for Denizen said: "The move follows stringent efforts by Mr Bolton and a new board to fix the business after serious flaws were unearthed in the pricing of a number of the contracts by the previous management team."

Bolton sold Charlton Homes in 2002 to Ireland's biggest house builder at the time, McInerney Homes, for £8m. McInerney Homes went into administration in 2011.

Denizen has three outstanding contracts and two of those three, both hotel developments in Southport and Sheffield, have been novated to another contractor, ensuring the jobs are completed and sub-contractors are protected.

This was not possible at this time in the case of the Southampton scheme, a £30m Hilton hotel within the Ageas Bowl, home of Hampshire Cricket. Duff & Phelps was appointed as administrator to find buyers for this contract and the company's assets.