CONSTRUCTION group CCG (Scotland) has opened a route to the English market as it plans for growth after recovering its profitability in a year of record turnover.

The Glasgow-based company saw pre-tax profit climb 140 per cent to £4.3 million, having fallen from £10.5m in 2015 as the industry tackled challenges in the wider economy.

Revenue grew 18 per cent to £134m in the year to March.

Director Calum Murray said the industry is “still in a fairly challenging period” but added that the company could use its off-site manufacturing facility (OSM) in Glasgow to expand the business into England.

“Housing is at the top of the political agenda nationwide and that is both a threat and an opportunity to Scotland,” said Mr Murray. “It is a huge opportunity for us in terms of our manufacturing expertise, because there is scope to go beyond the Scottish market, undeniably. The threat is that as the English market burgeons, it pulls on Scottish expertise and labour.”

CCG reported a 15 per cent increase in its OSM business to £12m and Mr Murray said that meeting the demand for housing targets south of the Border required a “colossal uplift” in the construction of new houses, which had led to a growing appetite for off-site building.

“We haven’t had to reach beyond the confines of our west of Scotland home but we’ve been approached by companies down south to use our systems, both public and private sector.”

Mr Murray said the OSM facility gave it a different dimension within the industry, making CCG “more efficient and more effective”, particularly at a time where there was a skills shortage emerging.

“As skills shortage is biting and Brexit may make it worse then the industry is going to be faced with serious labour challenges. OSM is one way that can be offset.”

Mr Murray railed against cutbacks to local authority planning systems, which he said was continuing to lead to huge delays in projects. He highlighted a £30m project in Glasgow which has been with planning authorities for more than a year.

“It doesn’t give us the necessary tools with which to plan our business and that is repeated across Scotland. The statutory approval system in Scotland is not performing at all well,” he said.

He added that in spite of Government targets for affordable housing, it was no quicker to get approval to build these homes.

“It creates volatility in a business because you do have uncertainty driven by uncertain statutory approval timescales. There is variability across Scotland on the deliverability of those timescales. Undeniably, the major housing issues are in our major cities and that’s where the [approval] issues lie. It needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency as it is simply not improving. The capital lock up it involves, both in private and affordable housing, there are jobs and investments tied up in those applications.”

Mr Murray said improvements could be made by allowing a business other than a local athority to undertake building warrant applications. In England and Wales this is currently undertaken by NHBC.

“The one difficulty you’ve got is that private regulation in the context of Grenfell may be very difficult to push through at the moment, but it is a definite line of travel. If it works in England and Wales, why would it not work in Scotland?”

Among its major projects in the last year, CCG built the tallest timber structure in Scotland by using cross laminate timber (CLT) at a 42 flat development in Yoker.

It also worked on the final phase of 206 homes

at the Anderston Regeneration in Glasgow city centre for Sanctuary Housing Association. The firm commenced work on the first phase of the development in 2009 and by the time the last phase is complete in 2018, 540 new, affordable homes will have been created.

And as part of the first phase of the Craigmillar Town Centre Masterplan on behalf of Dunedin Canmore, CCG is live on site building 111 new affordable homes.