The future is very promising for Mears. We’re an ambitious company with a powerful vision, an excellent financial base, strong management, great people and excellent clients.

We operate in a very promising market and have a clear strategy for long-term growth.

We are proud of our performance as a Group and take our responsibilities to shareholders and all other stakeholders very seriously.

We work hard to find the most efficient and effective ways of operating, and are committed to creating sustainable and profitable growth.

Our market – social housing

• £10 billion is spent on social housing every year in the UK
• There are 5.4 million social homes in the UK
• Mears currently supports around 500,000 homes

Social housing is a fragmented sector with relatively few service providers as large as Mears. Yet the outsourcing argument has been won. More and more Local Government clients are exploring the benefits to be gained by working with private sector providers and developing larger, long-term partnerships with fewer providers.

So, we believe there is an excellent opportunity for us to increase our market share substantially as Local Authorities and housing organisations seek to develop long-term partnerships – especially collaborative approaches to finding significant and tangible efficiencies throughout their housing services.

We see an addressable market opportunity in recurring repairs and maintenance of around £5 billion a year. The available spend from Central Government is also very healthy, with at least £3.5 billion to be committed annually to the Decent Homes Standard.

A decent home is defined as a property that is wind and weather tight, warm and has modern facilities. Although due to end in 2010, we believe the Decent Homes commitment is likely to last until 2015.