Updated: Torsion Construction Leeds Enters Administration

Updated 10.08.26

The £165m-turnover Leeds contractor behind the Sky Gardens tower has ceased trading after administrators from Interpath were appointed and a rescue could not be found

Torsion Construction, one of Leeds’ fastest-growing contractors, has entered administration and ceased trading, with most of its roughly 115 staff made redundant. Joint administrators from Interpath were appointed on 29 July after the £165m-turnover firm failed to secure the funding needed to survive. The Leeds-headquartered business, main contractor on the Sky Gardens tower in the city, is now being wound down in an orderly process rather than sold as a going concern. Administrators are working with funders to try to complete some of its live sites.

Why This Matters For Leeds

This is a significant loss for the Leeds construction sector and a warning about the pressures running through it. More than a hundred skilled jobs have gone and subcontractors and suppliers on Torsion’s sites face uncertainty over the work in progress. The cause matters as much as the collapse: a business growing quickly on razor-thin margins ‘ran out of road’. As Leeds pushes ahead with a large housing and student pipeline, the episode is a reminder that the firms delivering those schemes are under real financial strain.

What Has Happened to Torsion Construction

The company filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators on 20 July, having earlier seen off a winding-up petition from mechanical and electrical contractor JH Shouksmith & Sons. When efforts to find additional funding or a rescue failed, joint administrators James Clark and Howard Smith of Interpath were formally appointed on 29 July. Most of the workforce has been made redundant and the administrators have described an orderly wind-down rather than a trading sale, meaning the business is not being marketed as a going concern. Its most recent accounts, for the year to 30 June 2025, showed turnover up sharply to £165.4m but pre-tax profit of just £814,000, a margin below 1%. That gap between rapid growth and wafer-thin returns sits at the heart of what went wrong.

“Despite its efforts to find a sustainable solution and protect its clients from those pressures, the business’ liquidity ran out of road.”

— James Clark, Managing Director, Interpath, and Joint Administrator

The Cause, and What It Means for Leeds Sites

Torsion Construction is one company within Torsion Group and the group has confirmed its other businesses, including its development and care home operations, are unaffected. The contractor was working on 12 live sites when it failed, among them Sky Gardens, a 35-storey, 284-apartment residential tower in Leeds. Reports indicate the firm had been trying to arrange direct payments to subcontractors to limit the damage to its supply chain. Although intended to protect its’ clients and subcontractors, instead it ended up draining the contractor’s own working capital.