United House Developments
Initially focused on installing central heating into occupied council housing, the firm formed partnerships with various entities during the 1970s that fuelled its growth into larger projects.Two years later, Lloyds Development Capital (LDC) purchased a minority stake in the firm; further expansion, focused on inner city private housebuilding opportunities, was financed via loans from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).Durign the 1970s, Harp Heating broadened its service range via partnerships to undertake larger internal refurbishment projects, such as for the Greater London Council (GLC) operating from its 100,000 sq ft warehouse adjacent to the head office at Swanley.[1] Throughout the 1990s, United House gained substantial business under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) linked to the Decent Homes Programme, and building of new social under the Labour government.[1][5] Various management changes were also made not long after this rebranding; chiefly, Granter stepped down from active involvement in the business while Steven Halbert joined the company's board as chairman.[7][8] In September 2010, United House announced record-breaking fiscal results for the previous year, chiefly that its recorded pre-tax profits had more than doubled.