A SCOTTISH housebuilder has made a deal with administrators of Stewart Milne to take over an unfinished development site in Aberdeen.
Milestone Developments is now set to complete 22 homes at the Charlestone development near Cove, after Stewart Milne went bust earlier this year.
The construction firm announced in January that Stewart Milne Group has entered administration with the immediate loss of more than 200 jobs.
The construction firm, based in the north-east of Scotland, said it faced “significant challenges” since Covid, with administrator Teneo confirming that 217 jobs would be affected with hundreds of other sub-contractor positions also expected to be impacted.
Milestone Developments, based in Ayrshire and owned by husband and wife team Stuart and Nicola Jackson, will also take over a site called Monarch's Rise in Arbroath. The firm hopes to finish 62 sites at the development.
Former Stewart Milne site managers are also working with the firm.
Stuart said: “We’ve been talking about it for a while to push across the north-east and the central belt.
“When the opportunity came up we bid for several of the Stewart Milne sites and we got two of them. It’s part of our plan to organically grow.”
He added that the firm had begun work at the site and "the feedback has been very positive".
“We’ve managed to retain a lot of the contractors that were there and we’ve got former Stewart Milne site managers working with us," Stuart said.
“There’s about 16 guys on each site. We’ve had some homeowners say they are delighted to see us on site and there’s activity again as it’s been sitting for eight months with nothing going on."
A spokesperson for Teneo confirmed that all eight unfinished sites have been sold.
Around £33m was owed to ordinary, unsecured creditors including suppliers, customers and contractors, which a recent report revealed they will not get back.
Another £108m is owed to the Bank of Scotland and Homes England, with HMRC due £1.7m.
