Top 100: Election promises drive developer confidence
According to a major planning consultancy based in Gloucestershire election talk focusing on boosting development UK-wide is doing wonders for confidence.
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Careful reading of the annual report of a Gloucestershire headquartered firm with a UK-wide insight and interest in developments across a number of sectors has revealed some good news.
Pegasus Planning, headquartered in Cirencester with offices nationwide, is involved in projects across areas from agricultural, rural estates, retail and town centres to public sector, infrastructure, energy, waste and logistics and agricultural.
While rising interest rates and other headwinds had impacted developments, the consultancy said, there was an emerging confidence – enough for the firm to invest in its own teams to ensure it continued to deliver for its clients.
That confidence was being helped by the major political parties, who giving hope by talking up the need to increase housebuilding and to streamline planning.
We saw a healthy supply of work from a range of development sectors including the private sector residential market, which comprises a large extent of our workload,” said Nicola Crouch, director, writing in the firm’s recently published annual report for the year to the end of June 2023.
“In the current financial year (2023/24), the increasing rise of interest rates during 2023, used by the Bank of England to curb rising inflation rates, and the forthcoming general election and associated policy changes have continued to have an impact across much of our client base.
“This has been most keenly felt by our housebuilder clients in terms of sales rates and the residential market as a whole.
“We are witnessing some significant changes across the residential client base that are causing some workstreams to decrease, albeit with regional variances across the business.
“As inflation continues to fall and the stabilisation of interest rates, we are seeing a return in confidence in this market and an increasing workstream.”
“As with the year before, any reduction in workload associated with the housing sector has been replaced by a significant increase in the energy sector, where we are continuing to see increasing volumes of work for solar and battery storage development proposals in England and Wales and also in Scotland, where onshore wind energy projects are still moving forward.
“We have reinforced and invested in our teams working within this sector to improve the service offer we are able to provide. This is helping us to secure more work in this area.
“As such, recent and current turnover levels have remained healthy and comparable to previous years.”
Crouch added: “The recent and ongoing changes to national planning policy result in increased hurdles for some clients.
“Although this has meant some delay in bringing projects forward for the current trading year, we are now seeing signs of improved confidence as we move towards a general election and the election promises that are being made regarding the importance of the development industry.
“It is also identifying emerging opportunities that will further assist in our diversification strategy and which are currently being explored.
“Added to this, is the ongoing need to ensure that the UK is more resilient in meeting its own energy needs and the consequential development needs that flow from this. This is a cross-party issue and is therefore something that we expect to see continue to grow in importance.
“While there are some challenges within the economy and the development sectors we serve, there is a continuing and growing need for the services that we provide to our existing and future clients, which provides continued opportunities to grow Pegasus Group.
“The greatest risk is ensuring that we have sufficient staff within the relevant competencies to supply these services, but this is something we are keeping under constant review with appropriate investments to attract and retain key personnel.”
Turnover for Pegasus Planning rose from £37.4 million to £42.45 million for the year ending 30 June 2023, with operating profits up from £5.5 million to £7.5 million and staff numbers up from 401 to 409.
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