HMRC is seeking the winding up of Newcastle property company Hadrian Real Estate plc, which took control of key development schemes once belonging to the failed High Street Group.
The tax authority has filed a winding up petition against the firm. Court filings show the petition against Hadrian was launched by HMRC officials earlier this month, though the circumstances behind the move are unknown.
The firm says it is in the process of settling tax bills and that it expects a resolution in the near future.
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Hadrian began in April 2020 as a company called High Street Group plc before rebranding in August 2021. Former High Street Residential 海角视频 director Gavin Fraser became managing director of Hadrian.
At that time, the firm announced it was taking on six of High Street Group’s projects including a major residential and student accommodation schemes as well as smaller sites in , , North Yorkshire and Scotland - all part of ambitions to build more than 3,000 new homes in the next five years. In assuming control of the schemes, Hadrian provided an indemnity to High Street Group Ltd in relation to certain liabilities, including the group’s loan note holders - many of whom were small private investors using personal savings.
But in January last year, administrators of High Street Group said they had brought in property valuers to review the firm’s developments and concluded they were unlikely to recover value from them. The administrators said they lacked confidence in Hadrian’s financial standing and operational capabilities.
Since then, Hadrian has faced being struck off from the register at Companies House, though that action was suspended in December.
Mr Fraser said: “We are in the process of settling historic HMRC bills which will be partially offset by outstanding tax reliefs. The matter has been escalated within HMRC and we anticipate a resolution in the near future.”
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An HMRC spokesperson said: “We take a supportive approach to dealing with customers who have tax debts and only file winding up petitions once we’ve exhausted all other options, in order to protect taxpayers’ money.”
Last summer a court order was made for the following administrators’ conclusion that there was little prospect of recoup the £123m owed to loan note holders and creditors of the business who were owed an additional £87.7m. High Street Group encountered financial difficulties following delays to construction projects during the pandemic and requests from loan note holders to withdraw their funds.