MOST creditors of a developer which went bust part-way through building a housing estate on the edge of Minehead are unlikely to receive any of their money.

Stratton Land Ltd was put into administration in April of last year, a day before the High Court was due to decide on a winding-up order which had been served the previous December.

The company, whose sole director was Sebastian Arbis, had debts of more than £36 million at the time.

An ‘Exmoor Gate’ development of 71 affordable homes on land to the south of the A39 Hopcott Road, in Minehead, remains half-built with recent complaints that the unfinished properties were beginning to fall down.

The company’s joint administrators Oliver Collinge and James Sleight, of PKF Littlejohn Advisory Ltd, Leeds, have been granted an extension for their work until April of next year.

Walls can be seen collapsing on the half-built Exmoor Gate estate off Hopcott Road, in Minehead.
Walls can be seen collapsing on the half-built Exmoor Gate estate off Hopcott Road, in Minehead. (Contributed)

They said in a progress report there was little likelihood of payments being made to either preferential or unsecured creditors of Stratton Land.

Mr Collinge and Mr Sleight said they anticipated their work would be completed before the April, 2027, deadline.

They would continue to explore if further funds could be realised from the estate, and in particular deal with a development on land in Eastry, Kent, valued at up to £350,000 but which had a fixed charge of about £2 million owed to Stratton Land Investco LLP (SLI).

They were investigating an option where SLI had indicated it might wish to acquire the land via a credit bid where the amount it was owed would be reduced rather than by paying cash.

The administrators said the company had been predominantly funded by third party lenders, did not own any of its plant and machinery, all vehicles were subject to finance and many had been repossessed, and the sale of office equipment would not cover removal costs.