History
The origins of the company can be traced back to the establishment of Harp Heating by Geoffrey Granter in 1964. Initially, its core business was the installation of central heating systems in council housing while the tenants remained in occupation. During the 1970s, Harp Heating broadened its service range via partnerships to undertake larger internal refurbishment projects, such as for the Greater London Council (GLC) operating from its 100,000 sq ft warehouse adjacent to the head office at Swanley.[1] By the end of the 1970s, the firm was exploring the potential of not only further housing refurbishment schemes but working on new-build construction as well.
During the early 1980s, Harp Heating was rebranded as United House and relocated into the current headquarters in Swanley. Michael Rayfield was the company's joint managing director and shareholder until his death in 1984. In 1982, Jeffrey Adams joined the company, becoming its joint owner alongside Granter. Around this time, United House expanded into the housebuilding and house refurbishment sectors. During 1990, a development division, branded Modern City Living, was established.[2]
Throughout the 1990s, United House gained substantial business under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) linked to the Decent Homes Programme, and building of new social under the Labour government.[3] Adopting a renewed focus on partnerships, and seeking to expand its presence in the PFI/PPP sector, a new division, United House Solutions, was founded in 1997.[2] United House became a major PFI housing contractor in Britain, managing some 7,000 homes.[4]
In the 2000s, the company became the first contractor to form a strategic partnership with a local authority (Portsmouth City Council) in the housing sector.[2] It also developed an NVQ Level 2 in Housing in conjunction with Hackney College, which was the first qualification of its kind in Britain. During 2008, Modern City Living was rebranded United House Developments.[2][5] Various management changes were also made not long after this rebranding; chiefly, Granter stepped down from active involvement in the business while Steven Halbert joined the company's board as chairman.[2]
During August 2009, despite the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession, the firm recorded a turnover of £190 million, a 61% increase year-on-year.[6] During April 2010, Lloyds Development Capital (LDC) purchased a minority stake in United House while Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) provided bank loans to fund further expansion in inner city private housebuilding.[7][8]
In September 2010, United House announced record-breaking fiscal results for the previous year, chiefly that its recorded pre-tax profits had more than doubled.[9] One year later, revenue increased to £239 million, a 19 percent rise, while profit sharply rose by 76 percent to £15.3 million.[10] During the early 2010s, the company sought to pivot towards favouring its new-build projects over its traditional refurbishment activities;[11] it also sought to decrease the amount of construction work performed on behalf of other private sector developers.[12]
On 16 September 2014, a substantial restructuring of United House Group was announced. United House's construction business (United House Ltd) merged with Bullock Construction, which was also owned by LDC and has a similar profile to United House, but worked in other areas of the UK. The new construction company was called United Living Group,[13][14] and Bullock's CEO Ian Burnett become the group's chief executive.[15] Later that year, United House Developments, headed by Adams as chairman and Rick de Blaby as CEO, became a separate development company, based in London.[16][17]
During September 2015, the firm sold its interest in four London-based development sites in London to Telford Homes in exchange for £23 million.[18][19]
