UK Construction and Law
Founder of the Signature property group disqualified for five years after investors lost £4.8m buying desk space in buildings his company did not own
By Staff Writer | 20 August 2026
Lawrence Kenwright has given a five year disqualification undertaking days before he was due to stand trial. The company he was sole director of sold desk space in three Liverpool buildings on marketing material implying a Land Registry interest. It held no registered freehold or leasehold interest in any of them, and it was not part of the legal group structure whose name it carried.
The Insolvency Service announced the disqualification on 18 August 2026. The ban began the same day and runs for five years. It prevents Kenwright from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company without the permission of the court. The undertaking is a legally binding agreement in which a director does not dispute matters of unfitness alleged against him, and this one was signed days before he was due to appear for trial.
What was sold, and by whom
Signature Works Gold Limited, company number 10551109, was incorporated in January 2017. Kenwright was its sole registered director. It sold desk space to investors in three Liverpool city centre properties: the Bling Bling Building on Hanover Street, the Arthouse Hotel on Seel Street, and 60 Old Hall Street. The working space was to be let to members of the public, and the rental income was intended to fund returns to the investors. Returns stopped being paid after September 2019.
The marketing material stated or implied that investors would gain a legal interest, registered at Land Registry, in the properties in which they had bought desk space. Investigators found that the company held no registered freehold or leasehold interest in any of the three. The buildings were owned by three other companies, Signature Hanover Street Limited, Signature Living Arthouse Square Ltd and Signature Living Residential Ltd, of which Kenwright was the sole shareholder.
A brand is not a group
The second defect is the one worth carrying into a due diligence checklist. The literature referred to Signature Works Gold Limited as part of the wider family of Signature companies. It was not part of the legal group structure. What connected the companies was that Kenwright was the main or only shareholder in each of them, which produced common ownership and nothing more. A purchaser reading a brand across a set of names had no group covenant, no parent, and no interest in the building.
Kenwright has been the director of almost 100 companies, more than 60 of them under the Signature brand, and the group is behind the Shankly and Dixie Dean hotels in Liverpool. Signature Works Gold Limited was wound up in the public interest in December 2022, after investigations raised concerns about investors being misled. On winding up it had assets of less than £100,000 against liabilities of £4,848,654.
While Kenwright is not accused of direct fraud, his conduct nevertheless falls well below the standards we expect of company directors. Directors have a responsibility to ensure investment information issued in their company's name is accurate and can be relied upon.
Kevin Read, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service
The finding recorded against him is that he had, in the words of the Insolvency Service, "failed to ensure adequate stewardship and corporate governance" of the company he directed. The Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Secretary accepted the undertaking.
For anyone advising on fractional sales in a development, the sequence here is the ordinary one and it is worth stating plainly. Confirm which company in the structure holds the registered title. Confirm that the selling company is that company, or has a registrable interest derived from it. Confirm whether the brand on the brochure corresponds to a legal group or only to a common shareholder. Those three checks would have separated an investment from a promise, and they cost less than an hour at the start.