{"id":877885,"date":"2025-12-16T22:25:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/loss-deepens-at-watkin-jones-after-9-5m-building-safety-provision-increase\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T22:25:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:25:23","slug":"loss-deepens-at-watkin-jones-after-9-5m-building-safety-provision-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/loss-deepens-at-watkin-jones-after-9-5m-building-safety-provision-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"Loss deepens at Watkin Jones after \u00a39.5m building safety provision increase"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Watkin-Jones.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Contractor Watkin Jones slipped further into a loss after its building safety remediation costs ramped up.<\/p>\n

The contractor \u2013 the UK\u2019s 54th<\/sup> biggest<\/a> \u2013 recorded a pre-tax loss of \u00a38.7m in the year to 30 September 2025, up from \u00a3300,000 the year before.<\/p>\n

Turnover fell from \u00a3362.4m to \u00a3279.8m, while cash was down at \u00a380.4m from \u00a397m.<\/p>\n

The firm blamed additional costs related to building safety work, which included a \u00a37m increase in provisions linked to building remediation and a \u00a32.5m rise in building safety provisions.<\/p>\n

Watkin Jones chief executive Alex Pease also blamed fewer transactions and schemes in progress for the mounting loss.<\/p>\n

Pease said the firm\u2019s \u201cstrong construction delivery and effective management of build-cost inflation contributed to financial betterments in our projects and as such our gross margin performance\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he added: \u201cThe nature of the Watkin Jones operating model inevitably means that the economic challenges of the past few years and lack of investment liquidity can still be seen in this year\u2019s numbers as we deliver on transactions which we first evaluated three to four years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revenue from Watkin Jones purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) projects was lower after \u201climited opportunity\u201d for land sales, Pease said.<\/p>\n

Profit generated from build-to-rent projects was also down because the firm had already sold the sites it was building in the year, it said.<\/p>\n

During the year, the firm spent \u00a38.8m on building safety remediation, and completed remediation work on six buildings.<\/p>\n

It now has a provision for future building safety remediation of \u00a346.4m, in comparison to \u00a348m, which it expects to spend over the next four years.<\/p>\n

However, Watkin Jones said the timing of its building safety spend would depend on the \u201ctimely engagement by building owners, revisions to programmes under the new gateways, and the availability of appropriately qualified subcontractors\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also said it had received \u00a31.4m of contributions from clients to mitigate Watkin Jones\u2019 liabilities relating to building safety remediation, following negotiations.<\/p>\n

The firm said it was also in discussions with the owners of 13 properties \u201cwhereby the legal responsibility or confirmation of fire safety remediation requirements remains uncertain\u201d. It expects to resolve those discussions within the next two years.<\/p>\n

Watkin Jones said it \u201ccontinues to explore opportunities\u201d to recover remediation costs from the supply chain and insurance providers.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, the firm confirmed an order book of \u00a3340m for the coming years, and potential pipeline opportunities worth \u00a32bn.<\/p>\n

Its upcoming projects include a PBSA site with 484 student beds in Bristol, which still requires gateway two approval, and a \u00a340m aparthotel in Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

In October, it received approval from the Scottish Government<\/a> to move forward with a 799-unit residential development in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

Pease said Watkin Jones would enter 2026 \u201cwith confidence in the strength of our operational platform and our ability to create long-term value for our stakeholders\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

At CN Intelligence you can view and filter seven years\u2019 worth of detailed financial information on the top UK construction firms via our interactive dashboards. Access in-depth written analysis of the numbers along with targeted data and analysis on specialist contractors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Joshua Stein<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contractor Watkin Jones slipped further into a loss after its building safety remediation costs ramped up. The contractor \u2013 the UK\u2019s 54th biggest \u2013 recorded a pre-tax loss of \u00a38.7m in the year to 30 September 2025, up from \u00a3300,000 the year before. Turnover fell from \u00a3362.4m to \u00a3279.8m, while cash was down at \u00a380.4m<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":877886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32791,101169],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-877885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-deepens","8":"category-watkin"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}