The Banks Group is a family owned business headquartered in

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

, but working across Scotland and the North of England, established in 1976. Banks develops and operates in a variety of business areas including property development, renewables generation, flexible energy generation and storage, and mineral extraction and infrastructure services. The Banks Group was founded by Harry Banks OBE DL with his brothers Graham Banks, Joe Banks and Bruce Banks.

Divisions

Banks Property develops land in the north of England and Scotland for the building of new homes, and has obtained planning permission for the building of 10,000 new homes. Banks Renewables installs

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...

s and operates ten onshore wind farms across Northern England and Scotland, with the company's second solar endeavour, Barnsdale Solar near Leeds, receiving planning permission in July 2021. As part of the company's renewables projects, they operate a Community Fund scheme which donates to local community groups and voluntary organisations near their active renewables projects. Banks Mining was a division formerly active in open-cast or surface coal mining. The division has restored and landscaped every surface mine it has worked on. However, the group ceased surface coal extraction in 2021. In 2012, Banks completed construction of

Northumberlandia ''Northumberlandia'' (the "Lady of the North") is a huge land sculpture in the shape of a reclining female figure, which was completed in 2012, near Cramlington, Northumberland, northern England. Made of 1.5 million tonnes of earth from neighbo ...

, a huge, award-winning, land sculpture in the shape of a reclining female figure near

Cramlington Cramlington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, 6 miles (9 kilometres) north of Newcastle upon Tyne, and 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of its city centre. The name suggests a probable founding by the Danes or Anglo-Saxons. T ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

. Banks Group and the Blagdon Estate jointly financed the £2.5m cost of the work, as planning gain for Banks' adjacent open-cast

Shotton Surface Mine Shotton Surface Mine was an open cast coal mine located on the estate of Blagdon Hall, Northumberland, UK, operated by Banks Group. The mine was granted permission by the government in 2007, despite being refused permission by Blyth Valley Counc ...

, which was approved in 2007. The mine was approved in 2007 despite 2,500 objections and previous refusal by Northumberland County Council. Banks Group won a Marketplace Innovation Award from

Business in the Community Business in the Community (BITC) is a British business-community outreach charity promoting responsible business, CSR, corporate responsibility, and is one of the Prince's Charities of King Charles III (formerly the Prince of Wales). BITC work ...

for its technologies to reduce noise from mining operations.

References

External links

* Companies based in County Durham Property companies of the United Kingdom Privately held companies of England Companies established in 1988 Wind power companies of England Mining companies of the United Kingdom 1988 establishments in England Coal companies of the United Kingdom {{England-corp-stub