Chairman Simms hails establishment's past year as "one of the best" a decade after becoming private company

The BRE Trust has achieved profits of 拢1.77 million on the company鈥檚 ten year anniversary.

Neville Simms
Sir Neville Simms

The charity鈥檚 subsidiary trading companies 鈥 BRE, BRE Certification and FBE Management recorded the combined net profit on a 拢40 million turnover.

Speaking at the BRE Trust AGM on Wednesday, Trust Chairman Sir Neville Simms was delighted with the charity鈥檚 achievements labelling it 鈥渙ne of the best.鈥

鈥淎t the end of our first decade the BRE Trust鈥檚 assets and resources make it the largest education and research charity for the built environment in the UK,鈥 he said.

The Trust raised almost 拢0.9 million pounds for research activities in 2006/7 and is now actively supporting 43 research projects.

Ten years after the Trust took ownership of BRE, Simms believed the research charity has achieved its two main objectives 鈥 to ensure BRE鈥檚 successful transition from government agency to private sector company and to establish itself as an organisation with resources to support the built environment.

鈥淚 am pleased to report that, though initially daunting, these objectives have been met,鈥 he said. 鈥淥ur management teams and staff have worked hard to recognise and refocus the BRE companies, making them responsive to market place demands.

The Trust boasts over thirty PhD scholarship awards, contributions to built environment research, a growing involvements with schools and successful collaborations with other organisations such as NHBC.

The government Code for Sustainable Homes was based on the BRE EcoHomes methodology and Simms is confident the Trust can contribute even more in the next ten years.

鈥淚 have every confidence that as we enter our second decade we have established very firm foundations,鈥 said Simms, 鈥渙n which we can build an even wider range of charitable research and education programmes in the built environment.鈥