Contractor to take over hotel and residential sites after Pochin’s collapse

Contractor Willmott Dixon is to restart work on the Hilton Garden Inn development in Stoke-on-Trent which stopped when Pochin collapsed two weeks ago.

The £20m hotel development in Hanley had topped out in July and the 140-bedroom site had been expected to be completed this year.

But work stopped hours before it was confirmed that Sarah O’Toole and Jason Bell of Grant Thornton were appointed joint administrators to eight entities within the Pochin’s group of companies.

The collapse affected the Clayworks residential scheme which is also at Smithfield, a partnership between Genr8 and Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

Willmott Dixon is also expected to take over work on the 11-storey apartment block.

At this stage, the disruption is not expected to significantly affect completion dates on the projects.