Scottish housebuilding giant owed £258m in debt after collapsing into administration

Stewart Milne entered administration in 2024 (Image: PA)

A FORMER Scottish housebuilding giant collapsed into administration owing more than a quarter of a billion pounds, it has emerged.

Founded in 1975, the Stewart Milne Group at its prime employed hundreds of people and operated more than 35 housing developments at one stage across the north east of Scotland, central Scotland, and north west England.

The housebuilding firm’s former boss, Stewart Milne, was once hailed as a Scottish business success story.

However, the Stewart Milne Group fell into administrators' hands two years ago, and new documents showed that he owed £258 million at the time, according to The Herald.

According to the Teneo Advisory report, more than £141m is owed to 1361 unsecured creditors.

Among those who were owed money from Stewart Milne Group is the Bank of Scotland, owned by Lloyds Banking Group, to the tune of around £115m, the administrators’ report indicates.

HMRC was also owed the sum of £1.8m, with 196 claims from former employees also being due around £268,000.

UK housebuilding giant fell into administration owing £258 million (Image: Getty Images)

“At the date of this report, the total amount distributed to Bank of Scotland from the companies is £10.45m,” administrators said.

Milne, who was also a former chairman of Aberdeen Football Club, announced in January 2024 that the firm had been handed over to administrators after several failed attempts to sell the business.

Described as “one of the UK's largest independent award-winning housebuilders”, more than 200 jobs were lost as a result of the business's collapse.

Teneo Financial Advisory has extended the administration of the company to 2027 following approval from the Court of Session.

The administrators’ report showed that unsecured creditors' claims received to date totalled £40m, “which is significantly lower than anticipated when compared to the statement of affairs”.

The Stewart Milne group went into administration on January 8 (Image: Stewart Milne)

The report added: “Based on present information, there is no prospect of distributions for unsecured creditors and, as such, we do not intend to undertake any work to agree any creditor claims received.”

The report said it had completed the sale of the company’s eight partially completed development sites.