IN Brief:
- Curo Construction has ceased trading, with more than 100 staff affected.
- The collapse has thrown the £18.67m Manor Leisure Centre redevelopment into uncertainty.
- The failure adds to sector concerns over contractor cashflow, trade debt, and project continuity.
Curo Construction has ceased trading, leaving staff, subcontractors, clients, and project partners facing uncertainty across its building and fit-out workload.
Employees at Curo Construction and Curo Interiors were told the business had ceased trading with immediate effect after attempts to keep the company operational were exhausted. More than 100 staff are understood to be affected by the collapse of the London-based contractor.
The failure places renewed attention on Fenland District Council’s £18.67m Manor Leisure Centre redevelopment in Whittlesey. Curo had been working with the council and Alliance Leisure Services on a full redevelopment and expansion of the council-owned facility on Station Road.
The planned works include a new entrance and café, refurbished swimming pool, new fitness suites and studios, a sports hall, a rifle range, an integrated adventure play area, padel courts, family play space, and landscaped external areas. The scheme is intended to modernise a long-standing community asset while broadening the range of facilities available on site.
Curo had also been involved in design development and risk assessment work, with project documentation pointing to investigations around the existing structure, drainage, and steel-frame corrosion. Specialist discussions were also linked to the proposed rifle range, underlining the technical breadth of a project that combines refurbishment, new facilities, and operational leisure requirements.
Only days before the company ceased trading, a “meet the buyer” event at the leisure centre had been intended to connect local subcontractors, electricians, carpenters, tradespeople, and suppliers with opportunities on the scheme. Businesses preparing to support the redevelopment now face a pause while the council and its partners assess contractual options and project continuity.
Curo’s latest accounts showed turnover falling from £157m to £108m, while cash reserves dropped from £22m to £11m. Subcontractors had also been pursuing unpaid bills, and a winding-up petition had recently been lodged by a steelwork subcontractor.
Replacing a main contractor on a live or near-live public project is rarely a clean exercise. Existing design work, surveys, tender assumptions, subcontractor interest, warranties, insurances, programme allowances, and cost estimates all need to be checked before a new delivery route can be confirmed. Where refurbishment is involved, the risk profile can also shift as more information emerges about the condition of the existing asset.
Public leisure buildings are particularly exposed to this type of disruption because they combine civic expectations with specialist technical requirements. Pools, changing rooms, sports halls, cafés, play areas, plant rooms, and external facilities require close coordination between structure, M&E, drainage, finishes, accessibility, and future operation. A pause in the delivery chain can quickly become more than a contractual problem.
Payment pressure has already been rising across construction SMEs, with late payment, tax arrears, weaker pipelines, and cost inflation pushing many smaller businesses closer to distress. Although Curo operated at a larger scale than many SMEs, the same commercial pattern is visible: delayed receipts, disputes, subcontractor debt, and weakening cash reserves can erode a contractor’s ability to keep trading.
The collapse of Jerram Falkus Construction also showed how contractor failure can pass risk down the supply chain, leaving trade creditors, subcontractors, consultants, merchants, plant suppliers, and labour providers exposed. Clients then face the parallel challenge of protecting project objectives while remobilising through a different route.
For Fenland, the priority will be to preserve as much completed design and procurement work as possible while establishing whether the Manor Leisure Centre programme can be recovered without a major reset. The longer the pause, the greater the risk that cost, availability, and project scope will need to be revisited.
