A social housing specialist has swooped to recruit greater than 30 workers laid off by collapsed contractor Tolent.

Re:Gen Group, which specialises within the refurbishment of social housing throughout the North East of England, has appointed 33 of the agency’s former employees as a part of an enlargement plan that features the creation of a brand new asbestos-remediation enterprise.

Gateshead-based Tolent, one of many largest contractors within the area with a income of £200m, entered administration final week with the lack of 313 jobs.

Earlier this week, Brims Building introduced that it could take over Tolent’s Teesside operations, re-employing as much as 150 former members of the corporate’s employees.

Re:Gen Group has now appointed 9 ex-Tolent employees to new roles throughout the group, whereas safeguarding a further 24 jobs with the setting-up of Re:Gen Options, a subsidiary delivering asbestos abatement and administration companies to the agency’s social housing shoppers.

The brand new outfit has been established as a part of a development technique for the group that may see it relocate its headquarters to expanded 830 square-metre premises in Sunderland’s Doxford Worldwide Enterprise Park.

Among the many former Tolent employees to land roles on the new operation is Anthony Wade, who has been appointed as managing director of Re:Gen Options, in addition to Shaun Nesbitt, becoming a member of as operations supervisor, and Paul Dickinson, who takes on the job of contracts supervisor.

“It’s been a whirlwind few days to say the least, however as one door closes, one other has most definitely opened,” mentioned Wade.

“Over the course of the approaching days, we’ll contact base with all present shoppers to make sure a seamless transition, together with offering the emergency response cowl that could be required.

“It’s a really thrilling step ahead for our enterprise and a really promising one for our trade, too.”

Lee Francis, chief govt of Re:Gen Group, mentioned Wade and his group’s dedication and stage of care to ship high quality options made the enterprise a “seamless match” for the group and its tradition.

He pledged that the brand new enterprise would drive much-needed change within the trade.

“We can’t proceed to look at increasingly more companies fall down attributable to unrealistic expectations, value chopping and a race to the underside,” he mentioned.

“It’s time to ignite a change in coverage and rewrite the script for the longevity of our sector.”

Re:Gen Group was certainly one of three contractors appointed to a £150m building framework by the 13 Group housing affiliation final yr.