Henry Boot has announced that the group’s land promotion and planning business, Hallam Land, has sold 600 consented plots in the Midlands, as it claims it has seen noticeable improvements in the planning system.
This latest residential sale resulted in an ungeared internal rate of return of 28 per cent per annum and takes Hallam’s 2024 plot disposals to 2,800.
While this is marginally below the firms sales target of 3,000 plots for the year, following last month’s announcement of 52 acres of employment land in Coventry, the group claims Hallam is now on track to hit its full year financial target.
Hallam said it has seen “noticeable improvements in the planning system since the change in Government during the summer.”
In the year to date, Hallam secured consents on a total of 2,870 plots (2023: 1,014 plots), of which 2,056 have been achieved since the beginning of September.
In addition, Hallam has appeals lodged on 2,189 plots across seven sites and in total has 11,191 plots in the planning system.
Hallam’s land bank now has planning consent on 9,611 plots (June 2024: 7,990), and a further 10,000 plots are expected to be submitted into the planning system over the next 12 months.
The company claimed this leaves the group in a strong position to meet its medium-term strategic target of selling 3,500 plots per annum.
It comes as revenue and profit drop for Henry Boot Construction, following its latest half year results.
Turnover for the group’s construction arm for the six months to June 30 2024 decreased 22.6 per cent from £56.2 million in H1 2023 to £43.5 million.
However, In July 2024, it was announced that Lee Powell, currently CEO of GMI Construction, will assume the role of managing director of HBC, joining the business in January 2025.
Powell has been brought with the aim of restoring and growing the HBC’s orderbook.
Tim Roberts, CEO at Henry Boot, said: “This latest sale of a significant parcel of consented residential land means that Hallam Land is firmly on track to meet its target for land sales in this financial year.
“I am also pleased to note that under the new Government there has already been a welcome and much needed improvement in the planning system.
“We expect this to provide a strong tailwind to Henry Boot’s ambition to accelerate the volume of plots submitted for approval from our well located land bank next year.”
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