House by Urban Splash was developing a scheme in Grappenhall. Credit: via planning documents

‘Production defects’ to blame for Urban Splash modular collapse 

The underperformance of House by Urban Splash’s factory in Derbyshire “eroded confidence” between the company and stakeholders, restricting its ability to secure future projects, according to administrators. 

Problems at the Alfreton factory resulted in “production defects”, administrator Teneo said. The additional funding needed to remedy them caused cashflow pressure, creating a funding shortfall. 

The modular factory, which had been loss-making for a prolonged period, required additional funding to fund its losses and maintain its viability, according to administrators.

However, the latest report into the affairs of Urban Splash House group states that negotiations with shareholder Sekisui House UK over providing cash to plug the funding shortfall were unsuccessful. 

Sekisui owned 48% of the business, as did Urban Splash shareholders. The remaining 4% was owned by Homes England. 

Having failed to secure funding to prop up the factory, Teneo was appointed in May to manage the administration of various group companies. 

Last month, details of the group’s finances at the time of its collapse emerged. 

Documents filed with Companies House show that parent company Urban Splash House Holdings owes £8.3m to creditors, with £7.6m of that due to Japanese joint venture partner Sekisui House UK. 

In addition, Urban Splash House Holdings is owed more than £30m by interconnected companies that are also in administration. Only £4m of that is expected to be realised from debtors, according to Teneo. 

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Please stop reinventing the wheel. People have been building with brick and stone materiels for centuries – let’s just stick to building solid, reliable townhouses instead of messing around and wasting resources with stuipd concepts like this.

By Anonymous

Good idea anonymous, we should also go back to Iron frames. The use of steel will never catch on.

By Anonymous 2

We should go back to mud huts

By Anonymous

Oh come on it’s not like they’re building them out of marshmallows and love (although now that I say that out loud I wish they would). Building materials like all things must evolve or else we’d be quite literally stuck in the mud.

By Tomtum

Caves were a good option

By Anonymous

As CEO of the UK’s largest marshmallow manufacturer I can state that we’re ready to supply the housebuilding industry should it wish to start using our product. Not sure I’d recommend love as a mortar substitute though – carefully applied campfire heat might work better.

By M. R. Shallow

Scandanavian countries have be using alternative materials for buildings for generations. Seems a bit illogical having several tons of brick / stone holding up several more tons of roofing tiles up. Alternaive materials are good as long as used correctly. We have to find a way of building homes quicker than we do now using traditioal materials

By Colin

Hey folks – as much as I love a good marshmallow-as-building-materials discussion, just a reminder to keep the comments on topic. Have noted that there’s a desire to chat about alternative materials though! – Julia

By Julia Hatmaker

This development was going to be adjacent to my small estate and 3 other small estates, all with newer build homes but with a very Edwardian/Georgian look. I have no issue with more sustainable and efficient home design, but it doesn’t mean they have to look like the b*stard child of a shipping container and an army barracks. I don’t know a single person in our area who was sad to see this development plan meet a well-deserved end. The land will eventually be built on (unfortunately, as it’s greenbelt) but hopefully the new design will be far better thought out.

By Anonymous

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