Ardmore Construction Group is being placed into administration today after major London sites were shut down this morning and the company moved through the courts to appoint administrators. The step comes after missed payments to staff and subcontractors left the business under severe cash pressure.

More than 100 staff are expected to be affected, and around 10 live projects across London have been left in limbo. They include luxury hotel developments in Mayfair and Kensington, two residential tower schemes and a major life sciences laboratory campus at King’s Cross. For clients, the immediate task is to find replacement contractors before sites stall further.

The group’s problems have been building for months. Nearly a year ago, Ardmore Construction, the original contracting arm, was placed into administration, and the legal risk around the wider business widened after Crest Nicholson brought a landmark challenge over defect claims. The High Court ruled that Building Liability Orders under the Building Safety Act 2022 could reach beyond the original contractor and into parent companies and associated businesses in the same group.

That ruling opened the door for developers and building owners to pursue claims across the wider Ardmore group, and several major house builders, including Barratt, Taylor Wimpey and Bellway, are now pursuing major claims. The liability exposure is linked to historic residential developments that require extensive fire safety remediation after the post-Grenfell regulatory crackdown, a burden that has made it harder for the group to win new work and keep cash moving.

There is, however, one important distinction in the collapse. The wider Ardmore Group has not itself entered administration. It has applied for a moratorium, a process that allows it to keep trading while its position is reviewed, leaving open the question of whether the business can be stabilised even as the construction arm is pushed into insolvency.

Administrators are expected to take stock of the contracts, the unpaid claims and the likely liabilities now hanging over the group. For staff, subcontractors and clients, the next phase will determine not just who finishes the work, but how much of Ardmore’s business survives the fallout.