Aston Conservation & Building Ltd was put into voluntary liquidation earlier this month by company director Antony Page-Smith, 57.
The family-run Didcot-based business, founded in 2017, is described as a “well-established trusted name” across Oxfordshire and West Berkshire on its website.
It specialises in building work with a focus on extensions, renovations and refurbishments, particularly older and listed properties, the website adds.
Glyn Mummery and Emma Priest, of business restructuring specialists FRP Advisory, were appointed as joint liquidators for the Aston Conservation and Building.
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Statement of affairs submitted by the liquidators to Companies House show the business had £395,890 worth of debt to eight creditors.
Most of that (£361,029) is owed to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) debt management department that deals with the collection of outstanding tax debts.
Blanchford Building Supplies, of Headington, is also owed money by the Didcot-based company totalling £9,800.
The Headington-based builder’s merchants fell into administration earlier this year owing more than £3.3million to suppliers.
Other creditors include the bank Santander (owed £10,015), Warwickshire-based City Electrical Factors Ltd (£5,377) and Buckinghamshire-based Grant and Stone (£2,046).
What’s more, MKM Building Supplies in Lupton Road, Wallingford, is listed as being owed £3,962.
Aston Conservation & Building was approached for a comment.
In the year to the end of November, 4,370 companies went insolvent compared to 4,086 in 2021/22 and 2,481 in 2020/21.
This reflected a seven per cent increase in insolvencies from 2021/22 and 76 per cent in 2020/21 due to high material and labour costs.
The sector has experienced the highest number of bankruptcies of any industry in the UK for the past three years, according to auditing firm Mazars.
Meanwhile, the UK construction sector declined for a fifth consecutive month in May, according to figures by S&P Global construction purchasing managers’ index.
The fall was driven by steep declines in housing and civil engineering, amid cost inflation hitting its highest point in nearly two years.
Mark Boughey, a partner at Mazars, said: “There are now on average a dozen building companies going under every single day in the UK. This is an immensely difficult period for the construction sector.
“One problem is that the commercial viability of a lot of today’s projects were assessed three or four years ago, with fixed price contracts often being negotiated – since then, costs have spiralled, while buyers’ appetite has taken a dive.
“Construction contractors operate on very tight margins at the best of times – the sector is really being squeezed at both ends right now.”
