United House Developments is a

property development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. R ...

and

housebuilding Home construction or residential construction is the process of constructing a house, apartment building, or similar residential building generally referred to as a 'home' when giving consideration to the people who might now or someday reside th ...

company based in Southampton Street, London. It is active in the construction of social housing,

urban regeneration Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

refurbishment Refurbishment may refer to: *Refurbishment (electronics) *Antiques restoration *Automotive restoration See also *Conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property *Reconstruction (architecture) * Remanufacturing *Renovation Ren ...

and

Public Private Partnerships In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

(PPP).

History

The origin of the company lies with Geoffrey Granter who founded Harp Heating in 1964. Initially, the core business was installing

central heating A central heating system provides warmth to a number of spaces within a building from one main source of heat. It is a component of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (short: HVAC) systems, which can both cool and warm interior spaces. ...

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...

while the tenants remained in occupation. Harp Heating broadened this service into an internal refurbishment product for the GLC operating from its 100,000 sq ft warehouse adjacent to the head office at Swanley. Michael Rayfield was joint MD and shareholder until his death in 1984. After Jeffrey Adams joined the company in 1982, becoming its joint owner with Granter, the company changed its name and expanded into housebuilding and housing refurbishment. In the 1990s, the company won business under the

Private Finance Initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 199 ...

linked to the Decent Homes Programme, and building of new social under the Labour government. A development division named Modern City Living was established in 1990. United House became a PFI housing contractor in the UK, managing some 7,000 homes. In 2008, Modern City Living was rebranded United House Developments. Granter retired from the business in 2008 and Steven Halbert joined the board as Chairman.

Lloyds Development Capital Lloyds Development Capital (Holdings) Limited (LDC), is a mid-market private equity house and subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group, established in 1981 as Lloyds Development Capital Limited. From 1999 to 2011, it was known as Lloyds TSB Developme ...

(LDC) invested a minority stake and

RBS RBS may refer to: Organisations Banking * The Royal Bank of Scotland, a retail banking subsidiary of NatWest Group ** RBS International, the offshore banking arm of NatWest Group Education * Regent's Business School * Rotterdam Business School ...

provided bank loans to fund further expansion in inner city private housebuilding. On 16 September 2014, a 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, and Bullock's CEO Ian Burnett become the Group Chief Executive. Later in 2014, United House Developments, headed by Adams as chairman and Rick de Blaby as CEO, became a separate development company, based in London.

Awards

The company has won many awards including: * ''Daily Mail British Homes Awards 2009 Apartment Building of the Year'' for Queensbridge Quarter in

London Fields London Fields is a park in Hackney, London, although the name also refers to the immediate area in Hackney surrounding it and London Fields station. It is common land adjoining the Hackney Central area of the London Borough of Hackney. The p ...

, Hackney * 2010 Development of the Year for Arundel Square, Islington * ''Daily Telegraph British Homes Awards 2011'' for the housing project at Clapham One

Notable projects

The company carried out the conversion of Frobisher Crescent at the

Barbican A barbican (from fro, barbacane) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer fortifications, defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Europe ...

, the original location of the Cass Business School, into residential use. It was also involved in the

Central St Giles Central Saint Giles is a mixed-use development in central London. Built at a cost of £450 million and completed in May 2010, it was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano and is his first work in the UK. The development consists o ...

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

. United House constructed the Clapham One development in

Clapham High Street Clapham High Street is the main through road and shopping area in Clapham, South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth. History On Clapham Common, not far from the western end of the High Street, is Holy Trinity Church, which was ...

for Cathedral Group in 2012 in a PPP with the

London Borough of Lambeth Lambeth () is a London boroughs, London borough in South London, England, which forms part of Inner London. Its name was recorded in 1062 as ''Lambehitha'' ("landing place for lambs") and in 1255 as ''Lambeth''. The geographical centre of London ...

. In 2013, it completed a project, involving 388 social homes plus office and retail space, in a mixed-use development at Hale Village in Tottenham. Around the end of 2013, the company completed the Paynes & Borthwick riverside development at West Greenwich.

References

External links

* {{Real estate in the United Kingdom Real estate companies established in 1964 Housebuilding companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Kent Privately held companies of the United Kingdom