Laing O'Rourke mothballs housing business after losses

摘要

Laing O'Rourke is mothballing its loss-making housing business Explore Living due to "continuing uncertainty" in UK housebuilding. The UK's largest private contractor said it is completing only those developments currently on site and will pause any future phases until market confidence improves. Laing O'Rourke said it expected this period of inactivity to extend "for a minimum of two years" due to the government's austerity measures and scarcity of mortgage lending. Staff will be transferred to other parts of the business where possible, with a small number of redundancies. The division's chairman, Paul Healey, and managing director, Karl Pickering, will leave the business. Explore Living made a loss of £3.5m on a turnover of £19m for the year ending 31 March 2011. It lost £6.5m off a turnover of £33.8m the previous year.