St Hilliers founder says government owes it millions, but Reed Group government claim rejected

St Hilliers Construction founder Tim Casey says the firm is owed more than $6 million by the NSW government and has slammed its decision to take over 13 NSW social housing projects.

Speaking at a creditors' meeting in Sydney on Friday, Casey said he had written to the State Treasurer, Premier and Finance Minister over the $8.1 million in work St Hilliers has undertaken on the projects.

Casey claims the construction business has only been paid $1.4 million.

Of the $6.7 million still owed, $3.5 million is owed to sub-contractors of St Hilliers Construction.

Casey says St Hilliers plans to sell the company’s Cumberland Street headquarters in Sydney, worth up to $22 million, to pump money into the ailing construction business.

“It’s a high-handed decision of the state government to [terminate these state housing contracts],” Casey said at the creditors' meeting.

One contractor on the NSW housing projects, Ivan Stefanac, a gyprocker who is owed $41,000, told The Australian he does not expect to receive any money now that the government has taken over the projects.

At the meeting Casey said all but two of the projects would be reopened and said he was confident the construction business would find a way to start trading again.

There are about 1,000 creditors of St Hilliers Construction.

At the meeting, attended by about 100 creditors, administrators Trent Hancock and Michael Hird of Moore Stephens Sydney Corporate Recovery Group did not say how much was owed to creditors.

The St Hilliers website is functioning normally again after previously only linking through to a press release about the voluntary administration decision.

Separately, the Reed Group, which is facing the threat of supplier seeking to wind up the business, has had its claim that it is owed up to $70 million by the NSW state government rejected following a parliamentary hearing.

An independent expert panel chaired by Andrew Rogers QC found that the monies Reed claims it is owed by the state government were not “anywhere near” the true figure.

Reed claims the money is owed for work done on building roads and building schools as part of the federal government’s $16.2 billion Building the Education Revolution scheme.