UK Construction and Law
Creditors approve seven Ardmore CVAs and the chairman says the group is done with main contracting
By Staff Writer | 7 September 2026
The property companies left standing after Ardmore's construction arm went into administration have company voluntary arrangements approved, according to the group and its restructuring advisers. Cormac Byrne, who founded the business in 1974, says the group will not operate as a main contractor again. No CVA has yet reached Companies House or the Gazette.
Two construction trade titles carried the approval on Friday 4 September 2026, one of them quoting a statement from the group and its advisers. Seven companies are covered: Ardmore Group Holdings, Ardmore Group, Byrne Properties, Celebration Homes, Paddington Construction, Systemhaven and Byrne Estates (Kensal Green). Proposals went to creditors in August and, according to the reports, all seven arrangements were approved after a final vote last week. The group says the restructuring gives creditors a better outcome than liquidation.
How the group got here
The Companies House register shows the sequence. Ardmore Group Holdings Limited and Ardmore Group Limited each filed a commencement of moratorium on 29 June 2026 and a notice that the moratorium had been ended or extended on 20 July. That followed the administration of the contracting business, Ardmore Construction Limited, and the judgment of 1 April 2026 in which the Technology and Construction Court made the first anticipatory building liability order under sections 130 and 131 of the Building Safety Act 2022, fixing seven associated companies with joint and several liability for an adjudicator's award of about 14.9m pounds and for any liability under the Defective Premises Act 1972. The consequentials judgment of 8 May, reported here yesterday, refused permission to appeal on every ground, refused a leapfrog to the Supreme Court and refused a stay.
Ardmore continues to dispute the underlying claims. One of the trade reports says the arrangements clear the way for an appeal to be pursued against the building liability order, and quotes the group as saying its focus is now on preserving value in the wider group, protecting the continuing businesses and pursuing that appeal. The same report says major bonding providers are understood to have supported the proposals. Neither point is on any public register, and both are recorded here as the group's and the report's own account.
The decision to place our construction businesses into administration and subsequently present these CVAs has not been easy, but we acknowledge they have been critical steps in securing our future and supporting our creditors.
Cormac Byrne, chairman and founder of the Ardmore group
Out of contracting
Mr Byrne's statement is the first time the group has said in terms that its contracting days are over. He said the group had explored all realistic alternatives, including liquidation, that the proposal presented more favourable terms to creditors, and that a majority had voted in favour. He then added that, although this was a positive step, the group was disappointed to no longer be operating as a main contractor, and thanked those who had supported and worked in the construction businesses over half a century. The projects the trade report lists include the hotel conversions of the Old War Office in Whitehall and Ten Trinity Square, the Corinthia, The Ned and The Whiteley.
What is not yet on the record: as at the morning of 7 September, the filing histories of Ardmore Group Holdings Limited and Ardmore Group Limited show no CVA document after the July moratorium filings, and a search of the Gazette for Ardmore between 20 August and 7 September returns no CVA notice. The approval is reported by two independent trade titles and confirmed by the group's own statement; the supervisor's report and the Gazette notice will settle the terms.
Why the rest of the industry is watching
The building liability order is the reason this restructuring matters beyond one family group. The court's power to transmit a liability from a failed contractor to solvent associated companies is what sent seven property businesses into moratorium and then into CVAs, and it is what any contractor with a long residential track record now has to price into its group structure. The appeal, if it is brought and if the Court of Appeal grants permission, is the next event. Until then the first-instance orders stand and the 14.9m pounds is due.
For creditors of the seven companies, the practical step is to obtain the approved proposals and the chairman's report from the nominee, check the dividend timetable against the moratorium dates, and diarise the Companies House filing.