Kingsway House was a planned development from the now collapsed Signature Group
Kingsway House on Hatton Garden in Liverpool city centre(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Investors from all around the world who put money into a failed Liverpool development say they have still not had their deposits returned, four years since the company behind the scheme went into liquidation.
The Kingsway House development in Hatton Garden in Liverpool City Centre was a development being built by a company called Kingsway SLG, part of the now collapsed wider Signature Group run by Lawrence Kenwright. The development, which was granted planning permission in 2018, aimed to convert the city centre building into apartments.
The Signature Group was known for converting historic buildings in Liverpool into popular hotels like The Shankly and the former 30 James Street. The group’s “fractional sales” model saw investors put money into individual bedrooms or flats that were part of its development.
But problems developed for the company and after a number of Signature’s individual companies fell into administration, the ECHO reported in June 2020 that the wider group had appointed administrators, with creditors owed nearly £114m.
In 2024, former company bosses Lawrence and Katie Kenwright were both declared bankrupt.
The individual company behind the Kingsway House development, Kingsway SLG, has been in receivership since August 2022, with the Hatton Garden building left unfinished for years now. According to Companies House, the administrative receiver for this process is a company called MHA Advisory Ltd, based in London.
Receivership is a legal process where a court or a creditor appoints an insolvency practitioner to take control of some or all of a company’s assets to manage and sell them in order to recover a debt.
But despite the stalled Kingsway House development and the company behind it being in receivership since 2022, the ECHO has been told that people from all around the world who invested in the scheme are yet to receive refunds, updates or even a projected timeline.
Representatives for the investors – who are said to come from the United States, Hong Kong, Australia, South America and across Europe – say they have received no progress communications from the receivers and are growing frustrated.
In an email seen by the ECHO, a spokesperson for the investors: “This silence is no longer a matter of administrative delay; it is actively damaging Liverpool’s reputation as a safe investment city. Developers abroad now cite Kingsway House as a reason to look elsewhere.
“Any action taken would not only restore our capital but also reaffirm Liverpool’s promise as a trustworthy destination for global investment.”
One Kingsway House investor who previously spoke to the ECHO was Juliet Ignatiev, who is 64 from Southport. In 2024 she revealed how she had put £31,000 of investment into a flat in the Kingsway House development and planned to use the returns she would make to start a new life in Australia. Having sold her home to prepare for her planned trip to Australia, Juliet was living in a caravan in Devon when we last spoke to her.
She described her life being devastated after the project collapsed and says she has endured many “sleepless nights” wondering if she will ever get her money back.
Now it appears that other investors in the scheme from all around the world are keen for answers about progress on getting any of their money back.
With this in mind, the ECHO attempted to contact MHA Advisory Ltd this week. At the time of writing this article, we are yet to receive a response.
The ECHO has previously attempted to contact Mr Kenwright about this and other developments.
In 2019, when faced with complaints from investors who said they had difficulty getting their money back from the Signature Group, Mr Kenwright told the Liverpool Echo that only a handful of his investors ever had any issues. He assured that the company was in touch with its investors at that time.
He also promised that investors would receive all the money they are owed once properties were sold.
In 2024, the Serious Fraud Office announced it had carried out raids at three properties and made four arrests as part of an investigation into the Signature Group.
In a statement at the time, the SFO said: “We have people up and down the country left out of pocket, and buildings left derelict at the centre of our cities. Today’s arrests and searches will help us reconstruct exactly what happened. This is now an active criminal investigation.”
In a recent update, the ECHO was told the probe remains ongoing.
