PwC sells remaining Rok units
ADMINISTRATORS have been forced to break up the remainder of troubled housing group Rok after a sole buyer failed to materialise.
Just 500 jobs out of a workforce of 3,800 look set to be saved after PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found buyers for only parts of the firm.
PwC said that it had sold parcels of the construction and social house building division to Mansell Construction Services, a subsidiary of Balfour Beatty, saving 381 jobs.
The reprieved section is made up of construction operations in Milton Keynes, Gatwick and Heathrow and the social house building businesses based in the South West and North West of England.
In a further development, sources close to housing maintenance firm Mears Group, claimed that it was saving more than 100 jobs in the South West.
But the majority of the firm’s employees are being made redundant after earlier
expressions of interest to buy the whole group collapsed.
PwC are retaining a team of 200 people across the group to help wind up the business but these jobs will go once the parent group closes.
According to PwC, Rok which built and maintained social housing, was a casualty of public sector cuts and the construction slump.
PwC Jeremy Webb joint administrator said: “We are delighted that we have been able to secure a sale of part of the business hence preserving employment for 381 people.
“This is tinged with disappointment that there was not sufficient interest in the other parts and hence the redundancies that have been made today.”