BHY7 Sep 2012 11:06
OUTLOOK
The Group continues to trade in line with
the Board’s expectations for the year ending
31 December 2012 and taking each business
segment in turn we view the outlook as follows:
Land
Over the next year we are in a position to
market several consented sites which, given
the slightly improving outlook for the housing
market, should see good demand. In the longer
term, we have an unprecedented number
of sites, within the planning system, working
towards an application and remain confident
of our team’s abilities to secure planning
permissions on these, notwithstanding the
new planning environment, and to maintain
a steady stream of profitable consented
sites over the forthcoming years.
We remain cautiously optimistic about an
increase in house building levels, although
it is a slow process, which is not ideal.
However, we hope that the policies being
introduced to improve the situation will
be successful in stimulating the market
in the future.
Developments and investments
Yields and asset values have remained
reasonably stable for well-let, good quality
property in the UK this year. This and our
ability to self-fund development opportunities
from our facilities and the cash flow generated
from land sales, gives us great confidence
that we should be able to capitalise on our
share of the schemes that come to the market.
More specifically, by the year end, we expect to
complete two developments at Markham Vale,
commence work on the mixed-use scheme
in Manchester and the NHS Foundation Trust
scheme in Huddersfield, begin to prepare for the
redevelopment of our retail scheme in Beeston,
a smaller retail site in Weston-super-Mare and a
budget hotel in Malvern. Looking further into the
future we are working to bring forward schemes
at Daventry, Thorne, Richmond upon Thames
and Tamworth and have numerous other
discussions in progress.
Construction
Over the past three years we have adjusted
the capacity within the construction division to
match the workloads available. The contracts
we have secured have been, on average,
lower in value and shorter in duration, but
have remained profitable. We continue to
expect activity levels to be subdued, however,
we are fully utilising our current capacity and
are quietly optimistic that we can move forward
as work levels begin to slowly pick up.
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