Connaught bills ‘unlikely to be paid’

The bulk of contracts held by striken social housing maintenance firm Connaught have been sold but won’t be taking over the unpaid bills.
Rival firm Morgan Sindall has bought the majority of Connaught contracts from administrators KPMG, however the sub-contractors and suppliers to whom Connaught owes money will have to deal with the administrators if they want their money.

A spokesman for the administrators told the BBC the day the firm was appointed that there “simply wasn’t a big pot of money” to pay bill such as those from sub-contrators for work that had been done but not paid for.

As well as the issue of unpaid debts to merchant suppliers, leaving a large number of unpaid sub-contractors could have knock-on effects on the merchant sector with customers’ cashflow and ability to pay other bills affected.

Altogether, Connaught subcontractors and suppliers are owed something in the region of £25m.