Circle Housing and Support

Circle Housing and Support, an Essex-based charity offering a range of supported living accommodations for vulnerable people, entered administration on 6 July 2022. John Dickinson and Joseph Colley of Carter Backer Winter were appointed Joint Administrators.

The charity is a social housing operator with over 150 properties across southeast and northeast England, providing homes and support to hundreds of vulnerable adults and asylum seekers.

Following a change in management, the charity’s trustees determined that leases for certain locations were onerous and that, without a restructuring of the portfolio, the charity would be unable to pay its ongoing liabilities in the near term.

Since their appointment, the Joint Administrators have continued to trade the charity and worked with the landlords, including Home REIT plc, the head landlord of the social housing in this matter, to negotiate exits from onerous leases with a view to solvently handing back the charity to its trustees.

Now, the Joint Administrators have announced that, from 25 November 2022, the leases have been assigned to One (Housing & Support) CIC. The deal struck by the Joint Administrators will also allow all creditors of the charity to be repaid in full with statutory interest.

As a result, 450 tenants across 141 properties whose 20-year leases were originally entered into in 2020 – and whose future was under threat – will remain secure.

The Joint Administrators were assisted in their negotiations by solicitors from Birkett Long.

The press release can be found HERE.