In September 2025 we successfully acquired Pennington Choices Limited, a Warrington based property surveying and consultancy business with over 25 years of experience in the social housing sector.
Employing over 150 people, Pennington Choices operates nationally across England, Scotland, and Wales, delivering high-quality professional and technical services.
This strategic acquisition reflects our commitment to expanding our offering and accelerating our ability to deliver fully integrated asset and compliance solutions. Working collaboratively, we will provide clients with a best-in-class end-to-end compliance model, from asset data capture and risk assessment through to remedial works and ongoing assurance
By combining Pennington Choices’ specialist consultancy with Mears’ national delivery expertise, we have strengthened our end-to-end capability across all eight compliance areas, creating a single, data-led model for assured compliance.
This integration paves the way toward a Total Asset Management approach, where clients can manage risk, compliance, and investment through a single trusted partner. Aligning professional insight with technical delivery and structured reporting, positions Mears at the forefront of the compliance and asset management sector.
Integrating Pennington Choices’ surveying, auditing, and assurance capabilities across our wider compliance, service delivery, and data platforms will enhance data outputs and give clients real-time visibility of compliance performance across their portfolios.
Together, our combined capability will enable faster, integrated, and fully assured compliance across clients’ entire portfolios right across the ‘Big Eight’ compliance areas: fire safety, asbestos, legionella, gas, electrical safety, lifting equipment, Awaab’s Law, and building safety.
With a forecasted £17 – 25 billion spend from 2025-2030 across the ‘big eight’ compliance streams, with the largest growth in fire, building safety, damp and mould, and retrofit, this is an exciting opportunity to further grow our capabilities in this space.
The housing compliance market is fragmented, largely single service led, and presents a significant growth opportunity and as compliance remains non-discretionary, and budgets protected even during economic downturns, our investment in our compliance offer further strengthens the Group’s position.
Pennington Choices is well known in the social housing sector and it will continue to retain its own known and trusted brand, leadership and colleagues.
“This is a great time for Pennington Choices to be joining the Mears Group. It follows a sustained period of growth, during which we have achieved commercial success by consistently doing the right things in the right way; with our clients, colleagues, and our wider communities.”
Mark Seaborn, Managing Director, Pennington Choices Limited
Key statistics:
Business acquired: Pennington Choices Limited
Region: National
Acquisition cost: £9.5 million
Employees: 150
Market: UK social housing compliance market worth £3.5 billion annually
