黑洞社区

Galliford Try is mulling over a move back into building social housing once a no-compete clause with Vistry runs out in less than two months鈥� time.

The firm sold its Linden Homes business to Bovis Homes, since renamed Vistry, at the start of 2020 in a deal valued at 拢1.1bn which included a 拢300m cash payment.

But it agreed not to build any social housing for the next three years in order not to compete with the same business at Vistry.

This elapses in January next year and Galliford Try chief executive Bill Hocking told 黑洞社区 it was running the rule over whether to look again at social housing work whose clients include housing associations and registered social landlords.

鈥淭he demand for affordable housing is still huge, it鈥檚 a market that is big and is going to be around for a long time,鈥� Hocking said. 鈥淚n January we can have another look at it and decide then.鈥� But he added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going back into housing or speculative house building.鈥�

The firm works in the private rented sector and is carrying out a 拢56m scheme in Milton Keynes and a 拢105m deal in Leeds 鈥� currently Galliford Try鈥檚 biggest job.

鈥淲e build residential schemes for private clients all the time. There鈥檚 no difference at all [with social housing]. The handcuffs come off in January, so we鈥檒l see.鈥�

Galliford Try is also looking at boosting its green retrofitting of existing buildings such as fitting photovoltaic panels to roofs.

Hocking said it would be helping some clients, mainly local authorities, bankroll the initial cost. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a massive market and for those clients who don鈥檛 have the money, then there鈥檚 the option for us to fund this through our balance sheet and they pay us back over five years or whatever. We鈥檙e talking to one or two clients who are very keen.鈥�

He said the firm expected to get returns of 6% on installing the kit as well as a similar amount on helping finance the capital expenditure. 鈥淲e鈥檙e testing the water and once we鈥檙e sure it works, then we will start to accelerate it.鈥�