The company behind timber-frame volumetric builder Lighthouse is set to appoint administrators, putting more than 120 jobs at risk.
IDMH, which rebranded as Lighthouse in 2023, has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators.
The firm was formed in 2020 to take over the assets of Ideal Modular Homes, a Liverpool-based builder that collapsed during the pandemic despite receiving a Coronavirus Business Interruption loan.
Lighthouse chief executive Tom White, who had previously worked for financial services company JP Morgan, had been a board member of Ideal Modular Homes.
The business reported £8.2m of net assets in its latest unaudited accounts, covering the year ending 30 November 2022. Company directors chose not to include a profit and loss account in its financial statements.
Lighthouse specialises in timber-frame volumetric modules, produced at its manufacturing facility in Sheffield.
The company was working on multiple small-scale housing schemes, including 64 apartments for BoKlok, a joint venture between IKEA and Skanska.
Lighthouse workers have stopped working on a rebuild of the Fair Isle Bird Observatory in Shetland, which was set to replace a modular building that burnt down in 2019.
Douglas Barr, chairman of the Fair Isle Bird Observatory Trust, wrote: “Regrettably, we have just been advised that our builders Lighthouse/IDMH have now lodged a notice to appoint an administrator and have currently stopped working at the [observatory] site.
“This is particularly frustrating given we now have a wind and watertight building and were in the process of completing the internals which were scheduled to be finished this autumn.”
The company has more than 120 employees, according to evidence it gave to the House of Lords’ modern methods of construction inquiry in November.
Lighthouse wrote in its evidence that recent closures of volumetric modular builders such as Ilke Homes had “resulted from company-specific issues, not just macro factors, and such closures are not necessarily representative of general sectoral impediments”.
The business also told the inquiry that it believed it had the capacity to build 650 new homes in 2024 and more than 1,000 in 2025.
