The Wates Residential Development Group (WRDG) is the Group’s investment arm. It is focused on all aspects of the residential development market – from land, planning and development expertise to construction and delivery. WRDG works with a wide range of partners across both public and private sectors of residential development, meeting the UK’s diverse and substantial market need for new homes within our communities.
WRDG had a strong and productive year contributing significantly to the Group’s overall performance against a more challenging market backdrop following the snap General Election, its inconclusive outcome and the continuing volatility within the UK planning environment.
The fundamentals of markets in the South of England and Wales, where WRDG’s activities are focused, remain robust, with strong opportunities for considerable growth. Profitable performances were recorded by Wates Developments and Wates Residential South, which also delivered an outstanding safety outcome across its development and contracting portfolio.
Since the start of this year, Wates Residential North, which focuses more narrowly on the construction of residential schemes, has been restructured to join the Group’s Construction operations where it is more closely aligned.
Overall, WRDG is now a business of significant scale with a current development pipeline of some 27,000 homes and around £150m of capital currently committed to a wide range of residential development investments.
Looking forward into 2018 and beyond, the business has excellent foundations upon which to grow and deliver continued success, with a clear focus on further developing its expertise and capability while attracting new team members to support significant planned business growth.
