Rick Willmott slams Building Safety Act 'travesty'
Posted: Tuesday, July 5th, 2022
New laws designed to fix endemic industry problems exposed by the Grenfell Tower fire have been slammed by Willmott Dixon chief executive and senior shareholder Rick Willmott. The Construction Index reports that Rick Willmott described the Building Safety Act as “a poorly conceived travesty of justice that shines a spotlight on popularist law making”. His strong words came as his company posted its annual results for 2021 with a £10.7 million cladding repair provision impacting on profitability for the year. The cladding scandal has now cost Willmott Dixon £61 million so far. Profit before tax and amortisation was £13.3 million, after writing down £10.7 million under exceptional items, on turnover down from £1.2 billion in 2020 to £1.1 billion in 2021. Willmott Dixon remained debt free at the start of 2022 with £113 million cash in the bank. Rick Willmott said: “Our underlying trading and profit was strong across all of Willmott Dixon’s operating companies, despite macro-challenges that the UK economy and the construction industry continue to face. However, our progress has been distorted by the need to increase our cladding related provisions to £61 million in aggregate in line with accounting standards, while we pursue recovery from those organisations ultimately responsible for designs, fire safety advice and insurance protection.”
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