Martin Udale takes 'leave of absence' from Panuku Development Auckland

Tuesday, 10 September 2019

Building company Stanley Group has been liquidated.

One of the directors of Auckland Council's property development body Panuku Development Auckland has taken a leave of absence in the wake of the liquidation of Stanley Group.

The Stanley Group construction empire, which was working on Housing New Zealand (HNZ) developments, was put into liquidation on September 5 leaving sub-contractors owed millions.

Martin Udale was a director of Tallwood Holdings, which was one of 10 companies in the wider Stanley Group to be put into liquidation.

Ten Stanley Group and Tallwood companies were liquidated last week. The business is expected to owe millions to sub-contractors.

'After consultation with chair of the board, Martin Udale is taking leave of absence from the board of Panuku Development Auckland until the end of November 2019,' said Panuku spokeswoman Joanna Glasswell.

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'This will allow him to focus on business matters arising from the voluntary liquidation of Tallwood Holdings Limited of which, until recently, he was a director.'

Lock-out at the Mangere Housing New Zealand development after the liquidation of Stanley Group.

Udale's decision to take a leave of absence comes after Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere called for Udale to step down.

Panuku owns about $3 billion of property for Auckland Council.

Ten companies associated with Waikato-based Stanley Group and Auckland's Tallwood were liquidated leaving sub-contractors on its HNZ projects in Auckland, Hamilton and Whakātane, facing losses of around $5 million.

Several of the Stanley companies were also placed into receivership on Monday.

Udale is also a director of Tāmaki Redevelopment Company (TRC), which is 41 per cent owned by Auckland Council, with the remainder owned by the Crown.

TRC is carrying out the largest urban transformation project in the country in Glen Innes, Panmure and Point England with over 7,500 new homes being built over the next 20 years.

Numerous out-of-pocket subbies, including plumbers, sparkies and labour hire companies, have spoken to Stuff about their fury at being left as unsecured creditors despite all the work they've done.

Subbies are yet to find out whether they will be paid for the work they have done for HNZ, or what deal HNZ will cut with them to lessen their losses and cashflow crunches.

Patrick Dougherty, general manager for HNZ's construction group, said HNZ was working with liquidators to complete remaining projects as quickly as possible.

'A key part of this process is to understand the status of subcontractors to ensure the fairest outcome,' he said.

'We are currently communicating with all our sub-contractors to advise them of this. We have also put security on all the building sites to protect the property of our sub-contractors and our properties.

'Housing New Zealand has contingency plans to put in place that will ensure works continue and we'll keep all the businesses involved updated on those plans.'

The Stanley Group liquidation is the latest in a series of construction collapses that have left sub-contractors facing large losses, and questions are being raised about what can be done to better protect them.