North-East housing developer taken over by Sunderland firm

Two North-East firms have joined forces after one took over the other for an undisclosed sum.

Wearside utilities and property services specialist Fastflow Group has acquired affordable housing developer Partner Group.

Based in County Durham and with an office in Derby, Partner has completed more than 2,000 new houses on 82 sites across the UK over the past seven years.

Among the nearby areas where it has built homes are Fence Houses, Shotton, Bowburn and Thornley.

Working mainly with registered social housing providers, Partner says it strives to create desirable and sustainable communities in which people are proud to live.

Its order book is in excess of £100 million and in 2016-17 it reported a 190% jump in profits to £1.7 million.

The turnover of the Fastflow Group, based on Washington's Parsons Industrial Estate, in the same year was £79 million, with a reported pre-tax profit of £9.3 million and an order book in excess of £300 million.

The enhanced group will provide work for almost 800 people and is forecast to push turnover well beyond the £120 million mark in the next financial year.

From its Washington premises and offices in Warrington, Fastflow provides infrastructure maintenance and improvement services to Northumbrian Water and Scottish Water and a wide range of high pressure gas transmission engineering projects for clients such as National Grid and Cadent Gas.

Fastflow Group chief executive officer Neil Armstrong said: “We are looking forward to working with our new colleagues.

“As well as growing our overall business, this deepening focus on the affordable housing sector hugely adds to the offer we have for property providers.

"For customers whose homes we currently maintain and repair, we can now help to deliver new build housing targets. With our support, Partner can increase its service offer with additional capacity for new housing, backed by high quality, focused, maintenance and repair programmes.

Barry Smith, founder and managing director of Partner Construction, which is based in Spennymoor, added: “We see this as an extremely positive development for the business.

"The Fastflow senior management team has demonstrated a real commitment to support further growth and development and I feel very confident of a bright future for Partner as part of a larger group and all the expertise and support that offers.”