Glasgow construction firm City Building has increased the amount it returns to its partners, Glasgow City Council and Wheatley Group, contributing £9.1 million to be reinvested in public services and social housing across the city.
The figures were published as part of the organisation’s annual accounts and represent a 4.6% rise compared with last year’s financial results.
City Building, which seeks to combine industry-leading performance with socially responsible business practices, consists of two complementary businesses: City Building (Glasgow) and City Building (Contracts).
City Building (Glasgow) was established on 1 April 2017 after the firm entered a 30-year £3.7bn 50/50 JV with Glasgow City Council and Wheatley Group. The organisation, which is now jointly owned by Wheatley and Glasgow City Council, provides repairs, maintenance and investment work to the Group’s social landlords in the west of Scotland, as well as carrying out £30m of repairs annually for Glasgow City Council.
City Building (Contracts), which is wholly owned by Glasgow City Council, undertakes work for the Council as well as competing with the private sector for commercial contracts, providing construction, repair and maintenance and manufacturing services.
According to City Building’s latest financial results, turnover for City Building (Contracts) grew modestly to £87.9m for the year ending March 31 2019 compared with £86.2m in the previous financial year.
This enabled City Building (Contracts) to return £4.1m – 4.7% of turnover – to Glasgow City Council to be invested in public services.
Turnover at City Building (Glasgow) also increased slightly to £139m for the year ending March 31 2019 compared with £138m for the previous financial year. A total of £5m was returned to Glasgow City Council and Wheatley Group, representing 3.6% of turnover.
City Building’s strong financial performance follows significant award wins this year. The firm gained a prestigious Customer Service Excellence award following a rigorous, independent assessment and was recently recognised at the Most Inspiring UK employer in national awards established to recognise diversity and inclusion in the built environment. Research carried out by GenAnalytics on behalf of City Building found that 9% of its apprentices are female compared with 2% of starts in the construction sector in Scotland, while 11% of its apprentices have a disability compared with 9% of apprentices in Scotland.
The brand has also been diversifying and developing a wide range of construction and manufacturing services including design and build construction, new house building, major investment and refurbishment, manufacturing, micro-renewables including district heating, solar thermal and PV installations as well as other specialist operations.
The company was crowned the best UK Gas Contractor of the Year at the 2019 ASCP UK awards and jointly with Wheatley Housing Group, UK Best Initiative to combat fuel poverty.
Dr. Graham Paterson, Executive Director of City Building said: “I am extremely proud of our robust financial performance and the economic opportunities that we are creating for both our staff and the wider city. As our recent award wins show, we constantly strive to improve our services and I’d like to commend our hard-working employees for their contribution to our success.
“We look forward to continuing to grow and develop the business, while retaining the unique social ethos which sets us apart from our competitors.”
