Building society buys shopping village out of administration

The mutual paid an undisclosed sum for Hornsea Freeport, which fell victim to the downturn in consumer spending and called in the administrators last July.

Leeds Building Society is believed to have lent 17m to the former owners, Hornsea Estates and Hornsea Estates (No.2), to buy the shopping village in October 2007.

The mutual declined to comment on how much its paid for the assets, although it is likely to be much less than the value of the loan.

Operations director Peter Hill said: "We are looking to the future. We are confident that we will see that asset value increase substantially. It might take some time."

The building society established a wholly owned subsidiary, Headrow Commercial Property Services, to buy the business, which is the biggest employer in the town.

Commercial property agent DTZ will manage the 16-acre site, which has 43 units, on behalf of the building society.

The outlet has a number of empty shops and despite being the first such centre in the UK now faces competition from rivals in the north of England.

Administrator Dan Butters, a partner at Deloitte, said: "We are delighted that we have been able to sell Hornsea Freeport as a going concern, thereby securing jobs."

JOBS MARKET MAY BE ON WAY TO RECOVERY

The jobs market was on the "long road to recovery", with demand for staff growing at the strongest rate since the summer of 2007, according to a new report today.

Research among 400 recruitment and employment consultancies showed that permanent staff placements increased for the sixth month running in January.

Jobs for temporary staff also increased, although at a lower rate than in December. Chief executive of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation Kevin Green said: "The labour market is out of intensive care but it is still in a fragile state.

"The recovery is tentative and must not be put at risk by taxes or regulatory changes."

Bernard Brown of KPMG, which helped with the study, added: "The starting gun for a public sector recession has only just been fired and its impact on the jobs market will be felt in the next 12 to 18 months."