London new-build freeze drags Mulalley to £3.2m loss

However the Essex-based agency’s powerhouse housing upkeep and maintenance division helped cushion the blow, with robust demand from councils and social landlords driving a 15% uplift in group turnover to nearly £200m within the 12 months to March 2025.

Mulalley stated the event panorama had turn into more and more hostile as stalled viability, excessive mortgage charges and the rising weight of Constructing Security Act rules left shoppers delaying or cancelling schemes altogether.

Gross sales charges remained sluggish, curiosity prices rose and the price of compliance continued to escalate.

On the similar time, councils and housing associations shifted their funding priorities, accelerating refurbishment, first rate properties and fire-safety programmes. This surge in lower-risk improve workstreams helped offset the collapse in new-build exercise, the place excessive borrowing prices and tightening regulatory gateways proceed to choke the pipeline.

Chief government Eamon O’Malley stated: “Regardless of the challenges, the administrators are happy to report one other 12 months of passable buying and selling for the corporate.

“Whereas turnover and profitability have been underneath strain, we’ve got maintained constructive operations and secured substantial ahead workload in decrease threat sectors at margins in keeping with our buying and selling expectations.”

In response to the turbulent market, Mulalley has paused bidding on additional native authority new-build schemes till its present developments are accomplished. As an alternative, the contractor is doubling down on its most resilient earnings streams in long-term refurbishment, deliberate upkeep and first rate properties work the place funding stays steady and demand continues to develop.

The technique is mirrored in Mulalley’s £991m ahead order e book, bolstered by multi-year public-sector frameworks value lots of of hundreds of thousands. Money efficiency was one other vibrant spot, swinging from a £10m web overdraft to £20.5m in hand at year-end.

O’Malley added: “We stay assured that our numerous combine of companies, supported by a robust stability sheet and a giant secured ahead workload, locations us in a superb place to make the most of alternatives when market circumstances stabilise.”