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The move follows a 鈥渨ar council鈥� attended by more than 30 subcontractors owed money by Cotswoldgate on 23 May.

The meeting, held at the offices of electrical contractor Clarkson Evans, was addressed by Steve Evans, the managing director of Clarkson Evans, and Colin Gibson, a partner in law firm Rickerbys.

Gibson said: 鈥淭he next move is to ask the administrator to call a creditors meeting and get the company put into liquidation. The liquidator has far greater powers to take proceedings against directors if there is evidence of wrongful trading.鈥�

Deloitte, which was appointed administrator in April, said it would send out proposals to creditors 鈥渋n the next few days鈥�.

Gloucester-based Cotswoldgate went into administration in April owing about 拢3m. The failure of the 拢13m-turnover firm followed the collapse of Welsh developer Meadgate in March.

I鈥檓 not sure why these firms all think we鈥檙e culpable

Richard Perrill, Cotswoldgate

Both were backed by Aurelian Property Finance. Meadgate鈥檚 assets were bought by River 7, a company with two directors, Martin and Jeffrey Taylor, who are also on the board of Aurelian. The two were also directors of Cotswoldgate, whose assets are now controlled by Aurelian. Richard Perrill, Cotswoldgate鈥檚 managing director, was appointed to the board of River 7 in March.

Perrill said he was 鈥渟urprised鈥� that the subcontractors were considering legal action. He said: 鈥淚鈥檓 not sure why these firms all think we鈥檙e culpable. The global credit crunch is the cause of Cotswoldgate鈥檚 collapse. There is nothing Machiavellian going on.鈥�

Commenting on the commonality of directors in the companies, Perrill said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not unusual for funders to have representation on a board to protect their interest.

鈥淎urelian was funding Cotswoldgate and, as with all development funding, their funding was secured against the assets of the business.鈥�