2015 was a tough but rewarding year, we have made a lot of changes and been very busy but 2015 has been another good year, from both a financial aspect and an organisational aspect and the company continues to move in the right direction. The organisation size now stands at 20 and the Turnover levels have reached the levels that we had before the recession in 2007. This is a real achievement and again there have been some excellent contributions in 2015, right across the organisation.

The UK has the third biggest construction market in Europe and 2015 has been an excellent year for it with growth figures in the region of 5.5%. It should be noted that our business growth rate (as an expression of turnover) is well in advance of this at 19.75%.

There are some clouds on the horizon and potentially the uncertainty of the EU referendum could start to bite in 2016, with the economy at the end of the year potentially being less buoyant – maybe!

1. Private Housing is still expected to grow at 5% in 2016 (currently in the region of 10%) and announcements that the Government plans to develop more of its land for housing could increase this figure.
2. Commercial development is expected to grow by 6% in 2016 (about the same as 2015) but will increase in the regions outside of London
3. Energy Infrastructure is anticipated to grow by 118% by 2018
4. Roads construction is anticipated to grow by 46% by 2018
5. Rail construction levels are expected to be flat in London, with electrification of cross-country routes, forecast to provide the main growth in 2016 – however, with announcements that HS2 is ahead of schedule, this could change.

In terms of the above, we are now accredited on UVDB and RISQS and are now well positioned to strengthen our position in rail and utilities. We have also become UKAS accredited for ISO9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001, which removes another barrier for us winning work with clients in all the markets above. Behind the scenes there has been a lot of work that we have done to move us into contention for this type of work, in terms of reworking policies and procedures and bringing in new software and hardware.

It is our 20th Anniversary this year and we start it feeling very positive about the future.