The housing company that borrowed £200m but never made a penny profit is finally to be closed down after a six-year winding-up process.
By STEVEN DOWNES
Brick by Brick, the council-owned housing company that bankrupted the borough, has gone into voluntary liquidation.
Official notices appeared on the Companies House website yesterday, less than a month after the publication of Brick by Brick’s accounts for the financial year 2024-2025 were submitted.
Croydon Council, the company’s only shareholder, is left with
£68million
of debt to write-off, from the £200million which was loaned to its company between 2015 and 2020.
Over its 11-year existence, Brick by Brick never made a penny profit.
Going, coing, gone: the report in the Brick by Brick company accounts
Brick by Brick only ever built three council homes.
The rest of the properties it built, on what was council-owned land that was sold to the company sometimes for as little as £1, were either sold for private housing or released for unaffordable “shared ownership” homes.
The formal notices issued this week are part of a winding-down process that has taken nearly six years, and even then was almost derailed in the past 12 months when the dodgy-looking discount disposal of flats in Coulsdon, arranged under Tory Mayor Jason Perry, went wrong.
Short-changed: Jo Negrini received a smaller pay-off than Mayor Perry paid to Regen in hush money
Regen Capital, a little-known property firm from Essex with no track record in property deals of this scale, were supposed to pay £38million for 157 flats in three of the blocks on the Red Clover Gardens development on Lion Green Road in a suspiciously opaque buy-and-leaseback arrangement. In the end, Regen stiffed Croydon for £22million, and Mayor Perry handed them a £500,000 gagging payment to try to cover-up his latest clusterfuck.
Perry has therefore paid Regen even more than the golden handshake given to Jo Negrini, the former council CEO and brains (if that’s the right word) behind Brick by Brick, when she scarpered for the council’s exits in 2020.
The Red Clover Gardens saga has resulted in yet another BxB-related write-off by the council, though on this occasion it has received assets of three blocks of flats. This has been euphemistically described by Tory councillors as “a change of disposal strategy”.
Across the borough, from Coulsdon in the south to Crystal Palace in the north, there remain Brick by Brick buildings that will provide reminders for decades to come of the hubris and ego that suggested that Croydon Council could turn scraps of land into much-needed homes, and exit the arrangement with cash in the bank.
Shifty: former BxB managing director Colm Lacey
In fact, all that was achieved was to line the pockets of some mates working for trendy firms of architects, while enriching a few officials, such as Negrini and her shifty sidekick, Colm Lacey.
The final annual accounts include this report: “It is very likely that the company will cease trading activities within 12 months of approving the accounts. This will happen just after the shareholder…”, meaning Croydon Council, “…writes off all loans due.
“The directors…”, two sometime council employees appointed to see the process to its bitter end, David Courcoux and Stephen Hopkins, “expect that the company will have sufficient funds to pay all other liabilities.
“Therefore, the directors feel it is appropriate to prepare the accounts on a basis other than going concern.”
In other words, Brick by Brick is now no more.
This week’s Brick by Brick paperwork at Companies House shows that “A special resolution to wind-up” was passed on April 2.
“Pursuant to chapter 2 of part 13 of the Companies Act 2006, the following written resolutions were passed on 2 April 2026,” says the formal documents.
Final reckoning: the reduction in ‘other borrowings’, from £107m and £68m between 2024 and 2025 is largely due to the £38m sale of Red Clover Gardens. Not that Regen ever paid the agreed price
“Special resolution: That the Company be wound up voluntarily in accordance with Chapter III of Part IV of the Insolvency Act 1986.”
The liquidators appointed are Interpath Ltd, of Glasgow, whose services “assist creditors and stakeholders through the insolvency process”.
Perhaps they can explain how a development business building homes in south London in the second decade of the 21st Century, often on very favourable terms, failed to turn property assets into millions in profits.
Read more: BxB’s collapse was predictable. Why did no one else notice?
Read more: Building towards the council’s financial ruin, Brick by Brick
Read more: Perry’s ‘sale’ of Coulsdon flats will cost Croydon £60million!
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2026, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for an EIGHTH time in nine years, in Private Eye magazine’s annual round-up of civic cock-ups
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Let’s not forget Croydon Labour’s role in this fiasco. Tony Newman led the strategic vision for Brick by Brick, Simon Hall managed its financial oversight, Paul Scott influenced planning approvals and Alison Butler oversaw housing development and regeneration projects. That or they just took the money and the credit, when things appeared to be going OK. They faded away when when it all went tits up, as if nothing had happened. Labour party members have been expelled for less. To err is unforgiveable, to fuck things up is OK if you know the right people
Can we see more photos, please of the men and women who sold Croydon? Just to remind us of what shameless incompetence looks like. And .. please remind us what useless business hired Colm Lacey after his utter failure?
And do not forget to include photos of Cameron, Osborne and Clegg, who collectively set the ball rolling in regards to total decimation of Local Government funding.
Oh, I don’t think anyone could forget that! After all, didn’t Tory Perry base his campaign on promising to fix said mess and bring the miscreants to justice?
How well did that work out for Croydon, remind me?🤔
Yes, Newman & Co were godawful (and I can’t say more that wouldn’t be libellous); but can anyone point to anything better Perry and his cohort have done for Croydon? Please, do speak up!
If not, bore off about the previous lot.
Do not concern yourself in respect of libel. Our lawyers Messrs Sue, Grabbit and Runne are shit hot on such matters.
“The ultimate defence is the truth,” old Ebenezer Grabbit once advised.
So spill, Marie!
Don’t forget the expensive design winning office conversion in George Street to “showcase” the production dribble line of Crock by Crock has now been turned into a Coffee Shop. Wonder if the old gang of Negrini, Newman, Lacey, Scott et al will be popping in to remember the good times they inflicted on Croydon?
Quite a few councils seem to have got involved in disastrous adventures in property speculation. Have any been successful?
Just checked, Colm Lacey is … “a prominent UK development and regeneration expert, currently serving as the Group Director of Capital Projects for the New City College FE group and the Founder and Managing Director of the consultancy Soft Cities. He is also the Chair of London CLT, an organization focused on delivering community-led affordable housing.” So, now you know
And have you checked Soft Cities’ accounts?
All that money that took taxpayers years of working for, gone. Not one person has faced consequences. Scott, Butler, Newman, Negreedy, Lacey, Cheesbrough, Clark. Perry came into office with a clear public mandate shaped by widespread frustration over planning failures and shady developments, yet his response to ongoing issues within the Council has been overly cautious rather than decisive. He allowed failed CEO Kerswell to limp along with her extortionate salary until Commissioners were appointed. Heather Cheesbrough continued despite poor performance and questionable practices in the planning department. She eventually left of her own accord (apparently) but Nicola Townsend and Ross ‘Dodgy’ Gentry still collect their tax payer funded salaries. Croydon needed strong leadership, and a willingness to confront underperformance and conduct head-on. If the new Major, whoever that may be, is serious about restoring trust, they should demonstrate that leadership positions across the Council carry real consequences and that the planning department is being actively reformed.