Simon Bain
Business Correspondent/Personal Finance Editor
I & H BROWN, founded 50 years ago after two brothers bought a disused Fife
aerodrome, is celebrating the anniversary with a record £38m order book.
The Perthshire-based group has won half of that in the English civil
engineering market, and is progressing plans for major housing developments.
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The civils division is currently busy with Miller Developments on a
business park site at Dyce near Aberdeen, has landed a £6m contract for a
hydro-electric scheme near Fort William, and hopes to bid in joint venture
for the A9 upgrading. Mr Brown said: “We are starting to see work coming
through from National Grid, which tends to be site remediation and clean-up
work.”
On margins, he said: “It is still pretty competitive but things have
improved slightly.”
I & H Brown was involved in a planning tussle with Perth & Kinross council
four years ago over its Calliacher wind farm, sold to Perth neighbour SSE
only after a lengthy appeal process saw the council’s refusal overturned by
the Scottish Government. Now the council has rejected an application for an
extension to the wind farm, much to Mr Brown’s chagrin. “I was astounded
they refused it, given that the officers recommended it and the local
community council was supportive,” he said.
“This is what is holding us back, these are the problems that people have
with the planning.”
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