Broken Trust, Broken Dreams: Liverpool’s Investor Betrayal Leaves City Reeling

Paul Riverbank, 1/25/2026The Kingsway House debacle leaves investors stranded and Liverpool’s investment reputation in peril, spotlighting the urgent need for transparency and decisive city leadership to restore trust after years of silence and broken promises.

The story behind these hollowed walls isn’t hard to spot if you look close enough. For a while, the Signature Group loomed large in Liverpool’s property world. They carved up slices of old, grand buildings—sold fractions to eager investors in cities as far-flung as Melbourne, Hong Kong, and Boston—with a confident pitch: buy a piece, and help transform a city. Many bought in, lured by the parade of successful conversions like The Shankly Hotel or 30 James Street.

But somewhere along the way, the mathematics stopped working. By 2020, the company collapsed into administration, leaving creditors chasing a collective ghost of nearly £114 million. The bankruptcy this year of Lawrence and Katie Kenwright, who once led Signature, made headlines but little impact on those waiting for answers.

And what about the investors? Waiting has become a daily habit for them. The empty stares from unfinished units mirror the uncertainty in their voices. Juliet Ignatiev, for instance, thought she’d secured her future—£31,000 invested, a house sold, a new life in Australia on the horizon. Now, she spends nights in a caravan and days composing letters no one answers. “I have had many sleepless nights wondering if I will ever get my money back,” she admits, her words landing somewhere between hope and resignation.

There’s a peculiar silence hanging over all of this. Since the company slipped into receivership two years ago, the firms responsible—MHA Advisory Ltd most recently—have offered little beyond a generic holding statement. For investors, this isn’t just a pause in communication; it’s a growing stain on Liverpool’s reputation. Developers now meet in distant cities, pointing to Kingsway House as a warning, deciding perhaps to take their money elsewhere.

If the human drama isn’t enough to prompt action, consider what it does to Liverpool’s future. A city’s promise is fragile—its confidence can falter when stories like this take root. As one investor group, still hoping for a resolution, puts it, “Any action taken would not only restore our capital but also reaffirm Liverpool’s promise as a trustworthy destination for global investment.” Those words have yet to meet with any real response.

Authorities, however, have not stood idle altogether. Earlier this year, the Serious Fraud Office brought sharp suits and search warrants to properties linked with Signature, eager to make sense of where things went wrong. Their statement, clipped and matter-of-fact, barely concealed the scale: “We have people up and down the country left out of pocket, and buildings left derelict at the centre of our cities.” What comes from this investigation remains to be seen.

For Liverpool, the questions hanging over Kingsway House carry a weight that’s hard to measure—the hopes of dozens of ordinary people, tied to a building that never became a home. Whether faith in the city’s property market can be rebuilt may depend on whether those in charge will finally step out of the silence, or whether this empty structure will stand as a warning for a generation.

There’s a building at the edge of Liverpool’s city centre, not far from where the traffic quiets at night. It was supposed to be something remarkable—a place where new flats would catch the morning light and investors from around the globe would see their faith rewarded in brick, glass, and concrete. Instead, Kingsway House sits unfinished, its windows gaping and its concrete exposed, a kind of accidental monument to broken promises.The story behind these hollowed walls isn’t hard to spot if you look close enough. For a while, the Signature Group loomed large in Liverpool’s property world. They carved up slices of old, grand buildings—sold fractions to eager investors in cities as far-flung as Melbourne, Hong Kong, and Boston—with a confident pitch: buy a piece, and help transform a city. Many bought in, lured by the parade of successful conversions like The Shankly Hotel or 30 James Street.But somewhere along the way, the mathematics stopped working. By 2020, the company collapsed into administration, leaving creditors chasing a collective ghost of nearly £114 million. The bankruptcy this year of Lawrence and Katie Kenwright, who once led Signature, made headlines but little impact on those waiting for answers.And what about the investors? Waiting has become a daily habit for them. The empty stares from unfinished units mirror the uncertainty in their voices. Juliet Ignatiev, for instance, thought she’d secured her future—£31,000 invested, a house sold, a new life in Australia on the horizon. Now, she spends nights in a caravan and days composing letters no one answers. “I have had many sleepless nights wondering if I will ever get my money back,” she admits, her words landing somewhere between hope and resignation.There’s a peculiar silence hanging over all of this. Since the company slipped into receivership two years ago, the firms responsible—MHA Advisory Ltd most recently—have offered little beyond a generic holding statement. For investors, this isn’t just a pause in communication; it’s a growing stain on Liverpool’s reputation. Developers now meet in distant cities, pointing to Kingsway House as a warning, deciding perhaps to take their money elsewhere.If the human drama isn’t enough to prompt action, consider what it does to Liverpool’s future. A city’s promise is fragile—its confidence can falter when stories like this take root. As one investor group, still hoping for a resolution, puts it, “Any action taken would not only restore our capital but also reaffirm Liverpool’s promise as a trustworthy destination for global investment.” Those words have yet to meet with any real response.Authorities, however, have not stood idle altogether. Earlier this year, the Serious Fraud Office brought sharp suits and search warrants to properties linked with Signature, eager to make sense of where things went wrong. Their statement, clipped and matter-of-fact, barely concealed the scale: “We have people up and down the country left out of pocket, and buildings left derelict at the centre of our cities.” What comes from this investigation remains to be seen.For Liverpool, the questions hanging over Kingsway House carry a weight that’s hard to measure—the hopes of dozens of ordinary people, tied to a building that never became a home. Whether faith in the city’s property market can be rebuilt may depend on whether those in charge will finally step out of the silence, or whether this empty structure will stand as a warning for a generation.