Galliford celebrates £50m of contracts

CONSTRUCTION and housebuilding firm Galliford Try has won £50m of contracts for affordable housing in Yorkshire, Middlesex and Devon.

Galliford, which last year bought the residential assets of collapsed Hull housebuilder Wright Group for 7m, is to build 137 homes in Bridlington in a 14m deal.

Yesterday it said it had agreed a framework contract with East Riding of Yorkshire Council, to provide the homes as part of the Government's programme of direct funding to local authorities.

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Most of the properties will be built to level four of the Code for Sustainable Homes.

Galliford has also won a 24.3m contract to build 221 properties in Enfield for affordable home provider Origin Housing.

It will carry out the design and build contract, including 128 key worker homes, along with 16 houses and 77 flats for the affordable housing market and 256sqm of office space.

Work will begin in mid-August and is expected to be finished by May 2013.

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The firm will also carry out a development worth 11.7m in Barne Barton, Plymouth, including 91 affordable homes for Devon & Cornwall Housing Association, backed by a 5m investment by the Homes and Community Agency.

They are due to be completed by March 2012.

The contracts mark an upturn for Galliford, which was forced to axe hundreds of jobs in 2008 as the mortgage drought sent the housing market into a tailspin.

Greg Fitzgerald, chief executive of Galliford, said: "We are delighted to be awarded this series of projects which underline our strengths in the affordable housing and regeneration market and highlight our commitment to working with key clients to deliver quality housing stock for the future."

Galliford bought the residential development assets of Wright Group for 7m cash from the administrators in May last year, picking up five sites around Hull and York.

Persimmon, the York-based housebuilder, will give a further insight into the state of the housing market when it hosts its annual general meeting in the city on Thursday.