Guinness has awarded Lovell a £53.3m contract to build 221 affordable homes at Fossetts Way, three years after Ilke Homes collapsed. It runs to November 2028.
The stalled housing site on Fossetts Way has a builder again. Guinness Developments Limited has awarded a contract worth £53,316,412 to Lovell Partnerships Limited for the design, construction and completion of 221 affordable houses and flats there, plus the associated external works.
The award was made on 20 May 2026 and published as a formal award notice on 27 July. The contract started on 7 August 2026 and runs to 13 November 2028 (Contracts Finder award notice).
It is the first firm date attached to the site since work stopped there three years ago.
What the notice actually says
The record is short, and every number in it is worth reading carefully:
- Buyer: Guinness Developments Limited, a subsidiary of The Guinness Partnership Limited. Guinness published the notice on its subsidiary’s behalf.
- Supplier: Lovell Partnerships Limited, company number 02387333, registered at Kent House, 14-17 Market Place, London.
- Value: £53,316,412, awarded to a single supplier.
- Scope: design, construction, completion and defects rectification of 221 affordable houses and flats, including associated external works, at Fossetts Way, Southend-on-Sea.
- Route: a call-off from the CHIC Development dynamic purchasing system, following a competitive process. Tenders closed at 3pm on 13 March 2025.
- Dates: contract start 7 August 2026, contract end 13 November 2028.
The notice adds one line that dates the standstill precisely: “Guinness Developments Limited will not enter into a contract before 07 August 2026.”
Why the site has stood empty
Work on the Meadow Grange scheme at Fossetts Way began in November 2022, using factory-built modular units supplied by Ilke Homes.
Ilke Homes Limited did not survive the following summer. Companies House records the appointment of an administrator filed on 10 July 2023. A court order to wind the company up followed on 7 November 2023, and the company was dissolved on 13 August 2025 (Companies House filing history).
The two related companies went the same way. Ilke Homes Holdings Limited and Ilke Homes Land Limited were both dissolved on 14 July 2025 (Companies House).
That left a part-built estate behind a fence on a residential road, which is how it has looked ever since.
What we could not confirm today
Two things are worth flagging, because they are not in the record.
The award notice covers design and construction of the 221 homes. It does not describe what happened to the part-built structures on site, and Guinness has published no statement we could reach today setting that out. We are not going to assert a demolition programme we cannot source.
The notice also does not break the 221 homes down by tenure, house type or size, and it names no completion date for individual phases. The only dates it gives are the contract’s own: 7 August 2026 to 13 November 2028.
What it means for you
- If you live near Fossetts Way, expect construction traffic and site activity to resume. The contract has been live since 7 August.
- If you are on the housing register, these are affordable homes, and the contract end date is 13 November 2028. Nothing in the published record commits anyone to homes being ready before then.
- If you want the detail as it comes, the buyer’s published contact for this procurement is procurement@guinness.org.uk, and the award notice is public.
- Southend’s own planning record for the site is searchable on the council’s planning portal, which is where any change to the approved scheme would have to appear.
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