Right. Good afternoon, all. Welcome. Thank you for coming. Very nice to see all of you here today. We're really excited to be here to host this event this afternoon, and to present to you all the evolution of Galliford Try, how we see it through to 2030. Building off the solid foundations that we've built over the last few years in a market where long-term investment in the social and economic infrastructure of this country is an imperative for any government. And I can say that this morning, after last night's news, of course. Which by the way, I think is good news for the industry. I think getting it out the way quick is good for the country, good for the industry, so I think that's a good thing in regards to the outcome.
So today, we'll set out our ambitious targets to deliver long-term growing returns to our shareholders, leveraging our geographical presence across the UK and our customer base across the UK, and of course, our strong balance sheet and our 4,200 excellent people. In a nutshell, we're going to grow revenue and margin in the, in the big core businesses of infrastructure, building, and the D&B frameworks and water. We'll expand our higher margin special services business, as we'll show you in a minute, and we'll re-enter the affordable housing market. We're targeting revenues of at least GBP 2.2 billion in 2030, with strong cash generation and an operating margin of 4%. If you do the math, achieving that would, round figures, triple the full year 2023 earnings per share and dividend. Right, here's the agenda for today.
I'm not going to trawl through all of that, everyone, but we have a number of our senior people here in, in the audience. They've all been instrumental in our success to date and will be, continue to be instrumental in our future success. And we will be available later, of course, to answer any questions, at the end and, and over a drink, afterwards. So you've seen this before. I hope you're not getting bored of it, but, we do like to reiterate the broad philosophy of, of how we run the business.
We start at the center there with a core of 4,200 excellent people, and then we make sure we have an embedded culture of discipline about what we do and what we don't do, and that's both cultural and and process, I suppose, with aligned incentive mechanisms. That leads to being, us being very selective about what we, what we do for a living, what we take on and what we refuse to take on, and that, in turn, leads to a very good quality workload, stuff that we can do day in and day out, and deliver consistently and predictably. And that leads to further strengthen our already strong balance sheet, and so the wheel turns. And the really important key point for today, everybody, is to understand that this approach does not change one iota as we go forward to 2030.
Our growth is predicated on continuing the good work that we've done with this philosophy to date. That's because it works. Our approach to risk and our ability to walk away from the wrong type of work on the strength of our balance sheet underpins our consistent performance, and that's why the balance sheet is so important to us. We will continue to grow revenues and margins, as I said, in our three big core businesses. And those markets are resilient with any government in the chair, and will continue to grow with the tailwinds of demand, more mature, more mature client procurement methods, a good supply chain, of course, and a focus on quality using digital tools to improve our efficiency and our productivity, as Dave will expand upon a bit later on.
We'll continue to grow our higher-margin specialist businesses in both the water and the building sectors as we go forward. Mark's going to expand on the water market in a minute, and I'll pick up the building specialist businesses a little later. We'll re-enter the affordable homes market, which, of course, is an enormous market, as we all know, and as Angela will tell you in a minute. A market, of course, that we were previously excluded from following the sale of the house building businesses back in 2020. So that restrictive covenant has expired, and we can go back to play. And it's really important, I think, to note that this is a core skill set in Galliford Try. We build essentially blocks of flats for ourselves and for private clients all the time.
We'll continue to leverage our geographical footprint across the U.K. and our client footprint across the U.K., as I said, selling more Galliford Try services to public, regulated, and private clients across the whole of the country. On the back of that, we'll continue to generate significant growing shareholder returns for our investors, as our 2026 targets are superseded by our 2030 targets. More detail from Andrew on that in a minute. Just to give you an overview of the operational structure of the business, in England, we operate as Galliford Try, and everything we do in Scotland is branded Morrison Construction. We operate in four mainstreams, as you see there, and the ones in bold are the ones we are going to be talking about today. We've talked about most of the other ones previously.
So in building, we operate in all the core building sectors, as you can see. We'll talk about affordable homes, specifically today. In the special services, we've talked about investments before and their place in the PRS market, and so on. And we'll talk about the special services businesses, as you see there a bit later on. We're not going to cover the highway segment too much today. And then in environment, we've spoken before about the big D&B frameworks for virtually every water company in the U.K. Mark will pick that up and expand a bit more on the specialisms within environment and the way forward for that business.
Here's just a snapshot of some of our client base, and you can see there all the water companies, all the big public bodies, and some excellent blue chip private clients. So it's a really good customer base, and of course, that is just a bit of a snapshot of it. Here's a short animation of what we do in Galliford Try.
At Galliford Try, we design, build, maintain, and optimize the vital buildings and infrastructure that the U.K. needs every day. From our role as principal contractor on major public and private sector projects, through the specialist works of our active and passive fireproofing and security installations, and including our ongoing lifecycle maintenance works through our facilities management business, we deliver turnkey, end-to-end solutions that add value for our clients and society, including retrofits and refurbishment programs that optimize and extend the working life of our clients' assets. An aging asset base means the water and wastewater infrastructure needs to be replaced or maintained more frequently. The combination of our asset creation, capital maintenance, and water technologies businesses gives us a competitive advantage.
Our expertise in highways helps us to keep our communities moving from major civil engineering works to multimodal schemes, integrating public transport more effectively and driving down carbon. Our digital infrastructure team connects communities, while our capability in building supports their growth, providing affordable homes, education, health, custodial, and defense facilities that improve lives and deliver lasting change.
So we move on to what, what is going to drive revenue growth going forward. There's robust long-term demand across all of our sectors, driven by aging social and economic infrastructure, which needs to be repaired, improved, replaced, enhanced, et cetera, and we have leading positions across all of our sectors and frameworks which are responding to these big challenges. So there's a huge pipeline of opportunity with us as part of the solution. The market remains extremely resilient despite all the noise we hear, and this is demonstrated through our long-term order book, three point seven billion pounds. It's a very good, high-quality order book, the vast majority of which is let on a quality over price basis, as we've discussed before, and the vast majority of which you see on the left-hand side here, is negotiated in one form or another.
At the half year, we came, we came into the second half of this year with 98% of this year's workload in hand, 83% for full year 2026 already in hand at the half year, and 54% already in the bag for full year 2026. And all those numbers will be higher now. So that's an excellent position to be in. It gives us long-term visibility and allows us to get our ducks in a row in terms of our people, our supply chain, and so on. We had a similar slide up at the half year, and we had a dotted line here somewhere, I think, for the general election, which we took off last night.
But this just shows the frameworks that we have, and the fact that this long-term order visibility of our work is fantastic for us. We don't envisage any great hiatus through the general election. As I said earlier on, I think that the fact that it's short and sharp is a good thing for us generally. But as you can see, a great position on frameworks across the business and some new ones down the bottom here in the affordable housing world, as Angela will talk to you about in a minute. The dark blue are our current frameworks, and the lighter blue are when they get re... lighter green is with when they get renewed.
And of course, we have a higher level of confidence that we will be successful in those framework renewals when the time comes. So let's have a listen to one of our biggest clients, the Ministry of Defence.
I'm Andy Sturrock, and I'm Director of Strategy and Plans in the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, and my responsibility is to look out into the future to try and shape our plans and Defence's plans for what we're doing with our estate and our infrastructure going forward. So what Defence is looking for from its supply chain and suppliers like Galliford Try is, of course, value for money and timely delivery and quality. But actually, beyond that, we really want to work in partnership to be able to bring in the expertise from industry to help shape our requirements and make sure we're bringing them to market in an effective way. And it's only that way that we're really going to be effectively able to spend the capital investment we've got planned and deliver the products that we need.
Defence Estate Optimisation portfolio is a really important part of our forward capital investment program. It's around about GBP 5 billion of a total of GBP 20 billion-GBP 30 billion, so you can see it's a really big chunk. And what it's fundamentally aiming to do is modernize and rationalize an element of our estate. So we've got a laydown that is 20-30 years old, and Defence has moved on, and we want to look at how we can move into more modern facilities on fewer sites, increasing utilization. And of course, we've got the challenge of meeting the new regulatory framework that's coming in, particularly around things like sustainability. So that challenge sits with us. We've got to get after it. And we are living at the moment in a world in which our houses are not where they need to be.
So we're planning some really big investments across that part of our estate as well. So we have a really ambitious forward program of capital investment, and if we're going to make that and deliver it effectively, we're really needing to partner more closely with industry, getting the expertise that companies like Galliford Try can provide to us and are providing through to us through the Defence Estate Optimisation Programme, and harness that so we shape our ideas and requirements better, and we can get them out to you. So we're really looking for collaboration where we share your expertise, that shapes our ideas, and we can get these requirements out to market quicker and more effectively.
They're a good client, the MOD. They really are. Here are the drivers of margin growth as we go forward. And again, you've seen some of this before. But the two middle boxes are the ones I just want to start with, everyone, because these are the mainstay of sustainable growth, and we've spoken about them quite a bit in the past. Sensible client procurement based on quality, not price, and robust risk management. And those two remain absolutely the mainstay of our strategy moving forward. In addition, our work mix will change over time, with a high proportion of higher margin work, and you'll hear a bit more about that in a sec. And then there are a host of operational and process efficiencies which work together to further enhance our margins, as you'll hear from Dave again in a second.
Of course, not only enhance our margins, but the modern methods of construction also help us to be a safer business, 'cause we can do more in the virtual world, and that aids safety. Of course, good people are absolutely crucial to our strategy, and Vikki will talk about what we're doing about attracting... retaining our good people and attracting new good people to Galliford Try in a minute. Finally, would you like the bottom right-hand box there, overhead leverage? The central costs will remain reasonably static as we grow, and so that adds a bit of leverage to the bottom line. Finally, you've all seen this slide before. It's a remainder of our sustainable growth strategy, and I put it up.
The n-numbers in the middle have obviously changed, and there's two sections on the bottom, Affordable Homes and Special Services, that we've added. But apart from that, the key message here, everyone, is that our fundamental strategy remains exactly the same. It's predicated around people and health and safety. It's predicated about being operating in a social and environmentally responsible manner, working with communities and providing social value in the communities in which we work. It's all about quality, digital, modern methods of construction, keeping our supply chain close, providing them with good profitable work, because we want them to be profitable and successful too, and of course, safe, providing us with high-quality work, and of course, paying them promptly. That's very important.
So that's, that's a quick overview, but the real message here is the bones of our strategy remain very, very similar. All of that comes together to provide the numbers in the middle. So on that note, I'll hand over to Angela to take us through the affordable housing market.
Lovely. Thank you, Bill. So hello, and good afternoon. It's really great to be with you all today. So I'm Angela Brockbank, and I'm the new Affordable Homes Sector Director for Galliford Try. I came to Galliford Try with over 20 years experience in public sector. So I've worked for local authorities, combined authorities, and housing associations. I've delivered, in that time, millions of GBP worth of investment, thousands of new homes, and including major regeneration schemes and affordable homes program for a strategic partner. I think that gives me an excellent perspective on the opportunities and the challenges that face the sector, and how GT can actually bring some of those opportunities to fruition. So I joined GT last year, as I'm really passionate about the delivery of affordable homes, and I was really excited to be part of our re-entry into the sector.
I was also really attracted by the culture of the organization, which really aligns with my values, and I know that Vikki will talk a little bit more about that later. So I think, it's firsthand fundamental, the poor quality that we have in this country, that is for the economic well-being of Britain. So it's an absolute infrastructure must, and I believe that GT can be a positive driver for the change that's really desperately needed in the housing sector. So there's a clear and urgent requirement for more contractors to deliver the 300,000 homes we need, half of which need to be some form of affordable tenure, to respond to the housing crisis, which is just steadily getting worse.
So our experience, coupled with our established and mature supply chain, allows our business to continue to deliver the mid-rise schemes that are key to regeneration in our towns and cities. This is a broadening of our private residential offer that we've been continuing over the past four years. Since 2020, we've delivered 3,000 homes, and we've built on our reputation for high-density urban schemes. By utilizing our local authority and housing association relationships, we have quickly established our position in the market and are seen now as a partner of choice. So establishing ourselves in this sector will generate high margin and increased revenue as part of our 2030 strategy. So there are around 1,800 housing associations and councils in this country who act as landlords, and they're tasked with delivering those new affordable homes that we need.
There's lots of debate around the definition of what is affordable, so what's affordable in Newcastle might not be affordable in Inner London. But the government definition of affordable housing includes those homes for sale or rent, and it's for people whose needs are not met by the private market. There are lots and lots of different types of tenure, so customers can be paying between 50% and 80% of a local market rent for their home. And they're also able to access shared ownership products, which allows customers to part-rent, part-own their home, so get them on that housing ladder. So since 1991, as you can see from the graph there, we've consistently underdelivered delivering our affordable homes targets. We peaked at about 70,000.
This construction deficit is a major reason for the reason that we're in this housing crisis at the moment. That construction deficit is further illustrated by the National Housing Federation, and their figures that claim that 1.6 million households are on social housing waiting lists, and that we need 145,000 affordable homes each and every year just to keep up with demand. We're consistently falling short. In 2022-2023, we only delivered just over 63,500 of the homes that we needed. As we can see from these figures, there is huge demand for affordable homes. To arrive at our estimates of demand, we've assessed the larger housing associations and councils in London and across major urban conurbations in England.
We focused on those urban areas because that's where the midrise is needed, and that will match our expertise, and it will be in the geographies that we currently operate. And against that backdrop of demand, and from a standing start, we will be delivering a sensible target of around 200 homes a year by 2030, with a turnover of GBP 250 million. So our approach to delivery in the sector will be through several routes. We're going to utilize our familiar contracted approach through our long-term framework development and experience to deliver through residential-focused frameworks, and our delivery targets are based on that contracting approach. We're going to use our existing business units, utilizing the skills and knowledge that we have across the country.
We're going to deliver new homes in partnership with housing associations and local authorities, just in the same way that we have for our other sectors. Looking to the future, we're going to deliver partnership models and work with housing associations to bid for land, and that will follow our private rented sector investment model. We'll also look at opportunities for joint ventures, where we can share risk and reward and deliver complex schemes over an agreed timeframe. Underpinning our approach will be an upfront, agreed exit route, and that will significantly de-risk the approach that we're taking. Since our demerger, we've completed 1,600 apartments, and we're currently on site with a further 1,500, and then we're delivering those apartments in the private rented sector.
We've also got 3,000 apartments on our order book or at tender stage, and we've just been successful on securing places on the Homes England Dynamic Purchasing System and also the Communities Housing Investment Consortium framework. The CHIC framework is a GBP 3.2 billion framework over eight years to deliver affordable homes. We have also just signed a pre-contract services agreement with Anchor Housing to deliver a scheme for them in Bradford, and just last week, we were shortlisted for a major London housing framework. We're using our experience as a contractor to deliver these opportunities, alongside the development of a partnership model, where we will secure sites, building our reputation with land agents and funds across our private rented sector in order to create lasting relationships.
There are really clear indications that new partners are needed to deliver the number of homes that are required, and councils and housing associations, they're looking for trusted contractors with a strong balance sheet to deliver on the needs of their communities. So I'm just going to talk you through a couple of schemes that we have been doing over the past few years, since 2020. So as I mentioned, we've completed or we're on site with over 3,000 homes in the private rented sector. So on the left there, we've got Secklow Gate, which consists of 329 apartments in central Milton Keynes. We've got Ashley Road, East and West in Tottenham, that delivered over 281 homes.
Brent Cross there, where we're on site at the moment, delivering 545 apartments, and this is really key to the regeneration of that area. Also Dolphin Square there in Pimlico, where we're restoring 372 apartments across three blocks, plus delivering new amenity space. Monk Bridge is in Leeds, and it's a mixed-use scheme of five apartment blocks. It consists of 665 apartments with bars and restaurants and what is now excellent public realm. As you can see from this, we have the skills to deliver the apartment schemes we are targeting, ensuring that for us, this is a low risk, tried and tested market where we can deliver high-quality schemes at scale.
So we can deliver the products that meet the needs and the aspirations of the sector across a range of areas, and this will give us a competitive advantage. For example, the sector needs to respond to the climate crisis, and for this, for them, it's linked very much to fuel poverty and the kind of cost of living crisis for their customers. And our public sector clients face similar challenges, so this means that we understand already and have the tools and expertise to meet the challenge of residential decarbonization. Our MMC approach to the delivery for the private rented sector is directly transferable to the affordable homes market, and that allows us to deliver high quality homes efficiently, and this will drive down costs and program.
Homes England seeks to deliver place-based regeneration as part of their affordable homes delivery, and our broad offering across infrastructure, construction, and specialist services means we are well-placed to meet the placemaking needs of the country. So we are focused on speaking to the sector about their needs and challenges to allow us to respond appropriately. So now we're going to hear from Ian Wardle, who's the Chief Executive of A2Dominion, who is one of the largest housing associations in London. Ian's going to talk about welcoming GT back into the sector and about what that means for his organization.
The pipeline for any housing association or anyone who's developing homes is huge. The need is phenomenal. We should be building between 300,000-400,000 new homes every year, and we aren't, and we haven't been for some time. So the need and demand is absolutely huge. I'm Ian Wardle. I work at A2Dominion, which is a housing association.
I look after about 38,000 homes, so we're viewed as kind of a medium-sized housing association, and we'll be doing a lot more regeneration of our existing estates, which means that we need different types of partners, different contractors, different types of consultants, because some of our homes need to be regenerated or improved because of decarbonization, different living standards, and also to densify, to get the densities up in order that we can provide more homes, particularly in, you know, overheated markets such as London and the South. So the fact that Galliford Try is wanting to expand in this area is hugely helpful because unfortunately, there's just not the number of contractors around that there used to be. So to develop, we're looking someone with experience, with a track record.
We're looking someone with kind of a financial pedigree, you know, they're, they're not, they're not going to go bust on us. The fact that, you know, there's an appetite to, to, to grow in this market is, is really, really positive, and there'll be a huge demand for it. A contractor like Galliford Try, being involved right from the beginning is adds value all the way through the development cycle. So be that, you know, looking at, you know, straightforward contracting to repair a building or in a longer term, you know, joint venture or a long-term regeneration.
Having them involved right at the beginning with their skill sets and their different technical competencies to really understand the due diligence and build that development appraisal and that feasibility and get through planning and, you know, to make sure the cost optimization is there, that's phenomenally valuable. And it's about building a relationship as well. You know, it's a, t hese aren't short-term things. Usually, it takes many, many years to de-develop schemes like that. So having someone like Galliford Try, that has that expertise, has that professionalism, has that commitment, is really, really important to our overall sector, never mind just us.
So from what we have shown you today, there is significant long-term demand to deliver high-quality, affordable homes. We've made fantastic progress repositioning GT, and have been welcomed back by the sector. We've proven expertise, a strong balance sheet, a mature supply chain, which will allow us to work with the sector to deliver what they need. We have a credible ambition, which is low risk and deliverable, and there is a clear role for GT in a sector which will deliver high margin and turnover, contributing to our 2030 strategy. So I will now hand over to Mark Shadrick, who's going to talk about the opportunities in our growing environment business. Thank you.
Thank you, Angela. Good afternoon, everybody. Firstly, let me introduce myself. I'm Mark Shadrick, and I'm the Managing Director of the Environment Division within Galliford Try, and I joined Galliford Try in October 2021 through the acquisition of NMCN, where I was Managing Director for its water businesses in the north and south of England. I've worked in the industry since 1989. I've seen a huge amount of change throughout that period, but there have been two constants: increasing regulatory requirements and increasing investment levels as we've gone through each AMP cycle. Both of those trends are now going to continue.
When I joined GT, I was immediately impressed by the culture of the business and the caliber and passion of the people, and what's really pleasing is we've maintained that through the initial integration of NMCN and Lintott, but more recently through the newly acquired businesses as well. So the next slides, I want to provide details of the water sector's growth plans and how we've positioned ourselves to capitalize on those opportunities. So what do those opportunities look like? Well, the sector is now preparing for its next regulatory period in England and Wales, which is AMP8, and that will start in April 2025. So all the water companies have submitted their business plans through to Ofwat.
They'll receive the first round of formal feedback o n the 12th of June this year, and then, after a period of negotiation, their final determinations will be made in December of this year. Overall, in England and Wales, the water companies have submitted investment plans totaling GBP 96 billion, which is virtually double the AMP7. Well, virtually double the AMP7 spend of GBP 51 billion. In Scotland, we operate in a different regulatory cycle. Here, we're currently in what's known as Spending Review 21 at the moment, and that will run from 2021 through to 2027. Scottish Water intend to invest GBP 5.8 billion during this current regulatory cycle, and again, through conversation with them, we know that that's likely to double when they enter their next regulatory cycle in 2027.
That includes all the water companies' expenditure, includes their own operational costs, and when you strip those out, we believe that the addressable market is likely to be in the region of GBP 57 billion, and that is over double the GBP 23 billion, which is currently being invested. That includes all their capital investment plans, their maintenance plans, and also their large program of asset refurbishment and replacement. In addition, the MOD will renew its water and sewage frameworks over the next five years, and in effect, it is one of the largest sewage and water providers within the U.K. We have an excellent existing relationships, as Bill mentioned earlier, and therefore, we're gonna be well-placed when that opportunity comes to market. It's a great market opportunity overall for us. I'll just go through our growth strategy. It's simple, really.
Our strategy is to grow both revenues and margins, but with a focus on margin growth. Although we will see a flattening of revenues over the next year because the transition of the AMP cycles always causes disruption to the investment profile. In our large asset creation frameworks, we will control revenue growth, but increase margins through our focus on operational excellence. The reason we're doing that is we're conscious of the increased workload within the sector, the supply chain might become constrained. We don't want to take on large programs of work that we then find challenging to deliver profitably. But what we will do is accelerate growth in our asset management businesses, which offer higher margin opportunities. So overall, we're gonna see controlled revenue growth, but with blended margins growing significantly between now and 2030.
While overall, we'll be maintaining our position as one of the industry's largest players. So I'd like to provide you with a progress update since the last capital markets event that we held back in 2022, during which we set out the growth opportunities for Environment and our intention to grow our Asset Management portfolio. It's fair to say we saw the opportunity coming. Through our extensive network of frameworks, we've been talking to our clients, we've been talking to the regulatory bodies, making sure we understood what, A, the likely size of that investment was gonna be, but also, just as importantly, where that investment was gonna be focused. That's allowed us to prepare for the new regulatory programs, reshaping the business and making acquisitions in areas where we see that key expenditure.
So we're gonna restructure the business into two key divisions, two key business units, sorry. Asset creation, delivering our large volume design and build frameworks, and asset management, which will focus on capital maintenance, our water technologies manufacturing for businesses, alongside our asset optimization and software development teams. So following the successful acquisition and integration of both NMCN and Lintott, we've made further acquisitions based on the anticipated sector demand. The first of those was MCS, which has now been fully incorporated into Lintott. The purpose of that acquisition was to increase our capabilities in control and automation solutions. We then acquired Ham Baker, and the purpose of that was to extend our product offering for specialist water industry equipment, such as screening plant, where we know there's gonna be a huge increased demand in the next regulatory period.
And then, most recently, in November of last year, we acquired AVRS. It's a specialist M&E provider, and the purpose of that was to extend our capability in the capital maintenance arena across the U.K. water sector. All three acquisitions provide what we consider to be forever revenue streams through increased planned maintenance, refurbishment activities, and the assets having an overall shorter life cycle. So overall, we've made excellent progress as we prepare for the exciting opportunities that the next regulatory periods are gonna provide for us. So through a combination of organic growth and acquisition, we're now one of the biggest players in the U.K. water sector. We benefit from having 59 frameworks across the sector, with 13 of the largest water and sewage companies, which are shown on the right-hand side of the slide.
Those frameworks range from large-scale design and build frameworks, through to planned and reactive maintenance, through to product supply and installation. This, combined with our highly skilled teams, network of regional offices, depots, manufacturing facilities across the country, means we're in a strong position to help our clients meet their challenges of delivering the U.K. water's needs, improving asset resilience, increasing asset efficiency and optimization, and achieving our clients' net zero carbon targets. I do just want to mention one of our clients, and that's Thames Water. We've got a number of frameworks for Thames, and we do a lot of work with them, and I'm sure you're all aware of the challenges they're facing from a financial perspective in the press at the moment, but we're in regular contact with them.
Only last week, Bill and I met with their chief operating officer, their capital delivery director, and they are reassuring us it is very much business as usual, and that the investment levels will continue. So clearly, the water companies are facing a number of key market drivers as they approach these new regulatory periods. Through the restructure, we will align our business to help our clients meet these, and I just wanted to touch on three key ones. The first is the tightening regulatory environment. I've said that's been going on ever since I've been in the industry, but it really is ramping up now. The significant new legislation, which is requiring large-scale investment in both new assets and plant upgrades across the country. Our asset creation teams are well-placed to support these large programs.
We're seeing more and more the impact of climate change now, with extreme weather events, whether it's periods of very dry, long, dry weather, periods of very wet weather, or severe storm events. Unfortunately, that's coinciding with assets that are at the end of their operational life cycle. They've not been maintained properly, therefore, they're not able to cope with these events, and that's causing some of the flooding and some of the pollution incidents that we're seeing at the moment. So there's got to be a huge program of asset refurbishment and asset replacement as we move forward in the new regulatory cycles, and our capital maintenance teams up and down the country are ideally placed to deliver those. And then there's operation and maintenance.
I think all the water companies will accept that there's been underinvestment, underinvestment in this area, and they need to really ramp this up. So we're now able to offer a full service. We can design, we can build the plant, we can operate it, and we can maintain it. And as there's a real resource challenge going forward, we see the water companies are really gonna be looking towards our capital maintenance teams to help support that. But there's also a real challenge for the water companies to increase focus on asset optimization, extending the life cycle of their assets, and the digitalization of the asset base as well. And this is where our water technologies and our asset optimization teams come into play, and they're really ideally placed to help those water companies meet those challenges.
So we believe we're ideally positioned to support the companies with all the key areas of focus that they're gonna need to make as they move forward. As I said at the beginning, our plan is to accelerate growth in our higher margin businesses, higher margin asset management businesses. And I just want to talk through the opportunities that are in each of those. If I start with engineering services, we now have over 200 directly employed engineers working for us, and in AMP8, we're gonna see greater opportunities to deploy these resources in higher margin consultancy services through a combination of increased client recognition of the value that we bring, but also through negotiated improved commercial models as well. Water technologies, we have six manufacturing facilities now across the country.
Throughout our Asset Creation and Capital Maintenance frameworks, we can promote work for these higher margin specialist businesses, but also work with our clients to increase the development of standardized off-site build solutions in areas such as treatment plants, increasing the program efficiency. Talked about the capital maintenance opportunity. There's gonna be a significant increase in demand due to the aging assets and the increased complexity of new assets. We provide this service to clients already up and down the country, and there's gonna be opportunities to grow organically within the existing frameworks, but also there's gonna be a significant number of new frameworks which will come to market over the next couple of years, which we'll be in an ideal place to secure. As I mentioned earlier, it was a key driver for the acquisition of AVRS. Then finally, asset optimization.
Our clients must secure ways to maximize the life of their assets to ensure efficient operation. Lintott has 28 software engineers who work with our specialist partners, focusing on providing solutions to develop products and systems to enhance reliability and reduce energy and chemical costs. I just want to talk about one of the programs that we're involved in at the moment, and that's the river water quality monitoring. This is new legislation that's coming in. It's requiring the water companies to put real-time river water quality monitors adjacent to all sewage outfall discharge pipes. It's a huge program of work. I believe there's gonna be 35,000 sensors to install up and down the country. Along with our partners, we're looking at innovative solutions of how we can deliver those programs of work effectively and efficiently for our clients.
Dave will present on examples of digital developments we have made across the wider business shortly. However, I wanted to run through a couple of examples within Environment. At the last Capital Markets event, we presented an example of a digital twin, which is a digital replica of site assets, which allows operators to remotely monitor the plant performance and adjust operating parameters to optimize performance. We continue to invest and develop our capabilities, and we're now seeing increased opportunities coming to market to support our clients as they look to develop these, this technology. One of our clients is visiting Lintott in June to discuss opportunities to work together on, on digital twins, and we have another that's coming to market later in the year for a framework specifically focused on digital twins.
So again, that's gonna be a great opportunity for us to secure and cement our position in that, in that activity. A further example of these developments is the use of digital scanning technology. I've got a short video which is explaining the benefits. The video shows a site survey undertaken on a relatively small sewage treatment works. But what we're finding is, it's providing us with an 80% saving over cost and time compared with traditional methods of scanning. Furthermore, it's making the process safer. We're spending less time on site, less time interacting with existing assets, and it's providing us with increased accuracy, ensuring we get it right first time. It's providing robust data sharing and management capabilities.
Galliford Try's work in the water sector spans a multitude of sites for clients across the U.K., covering all kinds of facilities that treat the country's water base. With such a dispersed resource base, how can we promote effective collaboration, improve design quality, and reduce costs? Utilizing digital mapping tools allows multidisciplinary teams, both inside and outside our organization, to collaborate effectively on design and operational management issues of our clients' assets. Site visualizations and embodied health and safety information allows for effective health and safety inductions to take place before taking a step on site. While the interactive nature of the digital platform allows for operational data to be live linked, reducing the costs in creating a digital twin capability.
By using mobile mapping systems with high-speed laser surveys and high-resolution site imagery overlays, we can create accurate models that can be used to share key design information remotely, reducing the need for multiple visits, and creating a shared interactive workspace that streamlines BIM design delivery. Photorealistic point clouds provide an impressive level of accuracy to remote teams, eliminating the need for topographical and traditional surveys, and enabling initial triage of the site to specify specialist surveys.
So in summary, we have a great opportunity ahead of us. Our clients are facing significant challenges. We're part of the solution. The market will grow to circa GBP 57 billion over the next regulatory periods. We're in an excellent position to grow revenues, but more importantly, margins, through having the right capabilities, the national footprint, excellent relationships with our clients and our supply chain, and of course, our excellent people as well, across the country. And now hand back to Bill, who's going to talk about our specialist services.
Thank you. Right, thanks, Mark. Okay, so at the half year results, we said that we'd shine some light on the higher margin special services businesses that we've been incubating. And Mark has spoken a little bit about the specialist businesses in the water technologies part of the business, but we have four currently small or relatively small businesses that have a great deal of potential for higher margin growth. So just going through them quickly here. FM, Facilities Management, is the most mature of these businesses. These guys maintain the fabric of buildings and carry out life cycle renewals and green retrofit schemes for clients, mainly in the education, health, and extra care sectors, and these are all long-term PFI type contracts, typically more than 10 years.
Digital infrastructure, these guys provide land and property access, going to Mark's point about water monitors. The access to get to all these monitors, instead of 5,000 monitors, is really quite difficult, and these guys can help there. Good example of cross-selling within Galliford Try, actually. But these guys provide land and property access and construct infrastructure for the mobile telecoms companies, public sector clients, and private 5G networks, which is a very fast-growing and fast changing sector. Asset intelligence, they provide high-tech security solutions to protect critical national infrastructure assets for clients, both in the public and regulated sectors. And again, the DWI, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, is putting more and more pressure on the water companies to protect clean water sites for obvious reasons, and there's a huge program of work coming through there.
And then on the right, on the right-hand side, the Oak Specialist Services, they install and maintain passive fire protection to buildings, and they undertake facade remediations and new and install new facades, as well as fire door surveys, inspections, replacement, and maintenance, and so on. So in terms of the order book, FM has a sort of long, slow burn order book because of the duration of its contracts, and the other two businesses are much shorter order book durations, probably six months or so. So looking at Oak in a bit more detail, the Building Safety Act is driving a huge focus on fire safety across the built environment in the U.K., both new build and existing stock, of course. So Oak install passive fire protection, as I said, to new buildings.
They survey and remediate existing buildings, and have a team of accredited fire door engineers who inspect, repair, maintain, and replace, if necessary, fire doors across huge portfolios of public and private buildings. Of course, this is a never-ending task. If you can imagine the treatment that these doors get in the hospital, for example, porters or trolleys bashing through the doors, if that was a fire door, that one is, bashing through the doors, and these doors take a pounding. This is the same in schools, and hospitals, and prisons, and military establishments, and police stations, and so on. There are millions of doors all over the country. So this is long-term, high-margin, annuity-type revenue.
This market is very fragmented, and we see an opportunity to provide a nationwide service to our clients who currently have to have-- If you have a nationwide portfolio of buildings, they have to have a different supply chain in each region of the U.K. So that's the fire door side of it. The facade side of it also has a huge market, of course, following the safety act, the Building Safety Act. And Oak, as I said, that before they provide new facades for buildings, and they also replace facades or remediate facades in existing buildings, either for fire safety reasons or for green retrofit reasons. Again, another big, big market. And you can see their current client base on the right-hand side there. So Oak's growth strategy is simple.
It's currently very London-centric, and the plan is to grow organically using our existing regional office network as a springboard to provide U.K.-wide services to our clients, across the whole of the U.K. So we will replicate the London business, you know, in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, and so on. A massive opportunity here, everyone. Let's hear a client's perspective on this market from Savills and A2Dominion.
My name is Tony Defr ies. I'm a chartered building surveyor and a director in building consultancy in Savills, and I've been here 30 years, providing consultancy advice to clients on all types of buildings. In relation to cladding, the government has provided guidance that on buildings over 18 m, the market is circa GBP 19 billion, and for buildings of between 11 m-18 m, GBP 4 billion pounds. But I think that that is an underestimate. And that excludes works internally, addressing fire compartmentation and fire stopping. The situation with cladding remediation issues is finding contractors that are specialist, experienced, knowledgeable in terms of what are the likely issues that need to be remediated, and having good contacts with the supply chain that can actually provide the level of service needed to address what are often technically very challenging issues.
So having access to people that have fire engineers and technical consultants, such as Galliford Try, is really, really important, and there's not many of these people around either. It's actually very difficult to get competent people, but it's a huge requirement and a huge responsibility, so all of those skills are in-house with Galliford Try. So I think that is a real USP and something that we're really interested in working with Galliford Try on.
Having the specialist expertise within Galliford Try, I think is very important, and the fact that the specialist team is backed by a main contractor of considerable financial strength and long-term stability, I think is very valuable. What we look for are contractors that have expertise, track record, stable, and that are there to create long-term relationships. We're not there to work with clients on a one-off basis. We want to build relationships and trust, and that goes both ways. So that's a key part of anything we're looking for in contractors.
So the other three businesses I mentioned, specialist businesses, have a very similar growth strategy, and you can see their client base there with some different, clients, obviously. And the key thing here for me is when you look at the impressive combined client base of those four specialist businesses, you start to see the ability to join the dots here and sell and cross-sell to more clients across the Galliford Try business. And then, when you overlay the broader Galliford Try customer base, you see that there's an enormous opportunity to join the dots here and sell and cross-sell more services to many existing clients who know us, they value our balance sheet, our reputation, and our ability to provide a holistic service to them across the whole of the UK from our existing office networks.
This is a very real differentiator in a very fragmented supply chain. So I think this has enormous potential. These businesses are still relatively small, but they are all profitable and will grow to circa GBP 300 million per annum over the strategy period, with mid- to high-single-figure margins. We will separate them out and report them as a separate stream at the right time. But certainly by 2030, they will be strongly margin additive and contributing significantly to the performance of Galliford Try, broadly, generally. So that's the specialist business, and I'm about to hand over to Dave. But before I do, just to give you a bit of background, you may have read the RNS this morning.
Dave Lowery's been MD of our highways business for the last three years, and on the first of July, Dave joins the executive board of Galliford Try and picking up the whole of the infrastructure businesses, so, highways, energy, environment, and so on. So that's a really positive step. A guy called Glenn Blackmore, he is joining us from Skanska, and he'll pick up the reins as MD of the highways business from Dave. So congratulations, Dave, and over to you on digital.
Thank you. Okay, good afternoon, everyone. I hope you're all well. Thank you, Bill, for the introduction. Saved me a few seconds of think so. As Bill said, I've assumed responsibility for our infrastructure division, looking after and overseeing our highways and environment activity. A little bit of background, just, just very briefly. I've been in the construction industry for nearly 25 years, working across all sectors across the U.K. and overseas, and predominantly throughout my career, I've worked for major Tier One organizations, delivering major nationally significant programs of work. I'm very briefly just gonna give an overview of the digital agenda and the digital activity that's going across our Galliford Try organization, really focused on driving performance, improving our bottom line, and taking our business to the next level.
There's a number of good reasons why organizations should advance their digital agenda. I'll touch quickly on some of those points in a second, but there are three key messages really from a Galliford Try perspective that I would like you to sort of take away today. Firstly, and most importantly, we see digital as a fundamental driver of margin growth. This is all about better returns, more efficiency in our organization, driving down costs, improving our returns across the organization and to our shareholders. The second fundamental message is around we see this as a true enabler for our 2030 strategy, and a lot of the things you've seen from the team today, and what Andrew will talk about shortly, we see digital as a real enabler for that growth, both top and bottom line.
And thirdly, and perhaps really importantly, certainly from my perspective, as Galliford Try as an organization, we don't do this stuff because it's new and it's shiny. It's not a vanity project. We do these things if it drives performance, improves our business, and aligns to our business plan and strategy. So that's a fundamental reason that we do things, 'cause it really, really matters to our organization. Really quickly, just saying, pausing on some of the key messages there. So from a digital perspective, I've got three examples that will just bring this to life, and you'll show how we're driving down costs across our organization and benefiting our bottom line. Firstly, I'll talk about improved safety during construction and in use, and Mark touched very quickly on that before.
But what digital tools and data is allowing us to do is to make sure that we take people out of harm's way. We use digital tools and technology to predict potential situations and scenarios and reduce risk. It's a really important part of our future plan from a safety perspective. We have a really important focus across our organization on quality, really fundamental to our plan as we move forward, and quality in the sense of doing things once, reducing error, reducing risk, and improving commercial outcomes in our projects. You'll hear Bill and Andrew and the rest of the organization talk consistently about good risk management and strong controls and disciplines. What data is allowing us to do in the digital agenda is allowing us to use real-time information to reduce risk early and maximize opportunity early.
So we're not waiting till the end of the month or a quarter to review progress of our projects. We do it real time, so it's a really fundamental step across the industry. For me personally, greater efficiency is a fundamental part of digital, and what we're trying to do really, really simply is reduce the cost of our operations. On a lot of our contracts with our key clients, if we reduce cost, we either take or share the benefit of that in our commercial models, and that improves the bottom line on our projects. Net Zero Carbon is a real challenge for us all across the globe, and of course, in the UK, hitting some really key and challenging targets in the next few years.
We've got some really great examples of how technology is allowing us to move the dial and advance this really important subject throughout the business. One example would be on one of our highway schemes, we're currently trialing a piece of software called Qflow. So Qflow is allowing us to get real-time carbon data to accelerate carbon capture, and as well as addressing... The organization is doing really well at addressing the Scope One and Two challenge that we all have. Qflow is an example of us really getting under the skin of Scope Three, which is the industry's biggest challenge. This was also the first time this particular software has ever been used in the highway sector, so we're very proud as an organization to be leading the way in the industry. You may think, why is higher quality, quality order book linked to digital?
For us, it's very simple, and you'll see some of the examples in a second. What we like to do is create long-term partnerships with our clients, mature clients that understand the benefit of digital and the benefit of win-win situations. So we have a real high-quality order book with the right mindset, the right clients, and the right approach to delivering projects. And finally, you'll hear Vikki talk about our people, very, very shortly. But what digital also allows us to do is make sure we get the right balance and push our remote working and agile working agenda. We're really great. We've got lots of great examples across our organization on this front, but one great one is we have a quantity surveyor from Scotland working our Thames Water business.
So that's really working with mature clients, enhancing digital, and really getting better commercial outcomes across our projects. A couple of quick examples. This example here is from one of our highways projects, so I know it very, very well. This is an example where we've got a bridge structure launching across a river and a railway. And what we do, it's all about digital rehearsals. And what we look to do here, we take a 3D design model, we overlay it and integrate it with the program and the schedule. So we look at the construction sequence and the design in a really integrated way. But what's really special about this stuff is we'll do it with our clients, our customers, our supply chain, and we look to build it before we actually build it.
Effectively, we look to try to break the plan, to be honest. We break the plan to a point where we've looked at all the risks, we've maximized the opportunities, and we've delivered certainty. What these, what these bits of software allow us to do is reduce risk, reduce cost, do things once, reduce error, and maximize our bottom line. I'll probably say that a few too many times, but it is really important, and it drives our business consistently. There's a little bit on the right-hand side there, is a really good picture of how we enhance our reputation through digital. This is an example where we've worked with Network Rail and third parties to showcase what the bridge will look like, from a train driver's view. Now, we will never, as Galliford Try, launch a bridge over a live railway.
We would not do that from a risk perspective. But what allows us to do is really work with clients to show how digital can look beyond adding value beyond the construction phase. So I've got a quick video, it's about 30 seconds, but I really want to highlight and showcase really is the quality of the imagery. You can see there in yellow, that's the constraints, the overhead services. You can see the bridge getting built and constructed. As I say, our teams will work together, and we look to build this before we actually build it. We look to break the plan, so that when we do come to build this structure, we do it once, we know what the risks are, we maximize productivity, and we get the best possible outcomes across our organization.
So a really good example of real high-quality imagery and how digital's moving our business forward. There's a quick picture of what it looks like in reality. You can just actually see at the front, the overhead, cables there. They're much closer than they actually are in real life, just where the image is taken. But you can see the, the complexity and the quality of the imagery and how this brings, this brings things to life. The second example, I really like this example. The video you'll see in a second, is how we, how we use augmented reality. Again, to do the same things, to reduce risk, to make sure that we understand the challenge ahead, to make sure we do it once, and we maximize our commercial returns.
This is a bit of software called Dalux we use across our whole group, and what this allows us to do again is overlay 3D design models with augmented reality. You can either use it on a construction part of a project for the next sequence of activity. This example in the picture is standing on a partly built structure, and our teams will pick up the tablet on site, and you can move the tablet around, and it will show you what the next sequence of activity is. In this particular example, on the right-hand side, you can see it's around the pavement, the curb lines, the safety barrier, and the signs.
The two fundamental benefits we get from this, this technology and this digital approach is you'll see the sign there, which is sitting quite proudly, is we can tell whether there's a clash or it's in the right place before we build it. So if there's any issues, we design it out before we go and put anything into the ground, and we only do it once. So again, we're reducing risk, maximizing opportunity. The other thing we can do with this particular software is engage with our teams on the sharp end. So it allows us to brief everybody, they understand what the next sequence of activity is, enhances our production, makes sure that we do things once, and guess what? We become more productive. Very quick video.
Someone holding the tablet is going very, very quick, so I'll let it play for 10, 15 seconds, but again, just real high-quality imagery. You can see the concrete deck, and you can see the teams using this technology to look at the next sequence of activities. If there are any issues, we pick it up early and deal with it, and allows us to make sure that we - our whole life cost during the build phase of a project is as minimal as possible, and we get the benefit from that through our commercial models, as I said earlier. The last example is a great example, this one, to be fair. This is an example from our building business, and this is all about quality management.
I mentioned earlier the importance of quality management to our business and the focus that we have across all of our business units, and this is all about data capture. We have excellent software in the business where it's on a weekly basis or whatever time frame is required, we take 360-degree pictures and videos, and images of the live construction phases we build. So it's a progressive assurance approach. This allows us to make sure we have the records, we demonstrate to our clients that we've built in line with the specification to meet their requirements, but really importantly, and I'll just press play now. From a handover perspective, you can see the software that we have in the organization allows us to split this into two halves. The left-hand side image there you can see is the finished product.
So you can see the roof, the ceiling tiles are in place, the paint is on, all looks great, ready for handover. The other image on the right-hand side is an archive picture and video from two years ago. So we can sit down with our clients, and we can demonstrate that behind the ceiling tiles, we've got the ventilation and the services and all the other important building products in play. Huge benefit from a handover perspective, because what it allows us to do, normally, this would be a very people-intensive approach, where we have to go down, lift the ceiling tiles out, potential risk of damage, bit more rework, bit more cost. We can do all that in a really smart way and demonstrate to the client what's behind the tiles.
Again, so two or three or four times now, less risk, less cost, less effort, better returns, and a really efficient handover approach. So just to summarize, really, I'll likely repeat the same message that I kicked this part of the presentation off with. Digital is a really important part of our organization. I'm really proud of the fact that we are at the cutting edge of the sector when it comes to delivering and improving our operations. The three fundamentals, improving safety, making sure our culture, and the creating the safe environments for our people and our teams to work. There's a huge focus on efficiency. As I said, this is driving down cost, maximizing commercial returns on our projects, and making sure our quality and what our clients and customers expect from us is at the highest possible standard.
Again, final sort of two messages from me, really. Digital is a fundamental enabler to driving margin growth in the strategy period, has been for the last few years and will be for the next few years, and this will have a better return to our organization. So with that, thank you for listening, and I will hand over to Vikki.
Thanks, Dave. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Vikki Skene, and I'm the HR Director. I joined the business around 8 years ago, having previously worked for Balfour Beatty, in various different senior HR roles. I joined the construction sector over 20 years ago. I actually started my career in retail management with the John Lewis Partnership, before moving into HR and the Waitrose division, followed by, a couple of years with the police. Okay. You've already heard Bill talk about the importance of our people, and I'm really fortunate in GT to work with a board and leadership team that genuinely understands the value of people and the benefits of creating a positive, enabling culture. Construction is all about people, whether that's who's delivering the work or the people you're doing the work for.
People are central to our success and delivery of our strategy. That's why we pride ourselves on our strong, values-based culture, where people matter and are treated as individuals. We are focused on outputs, sharing of knowledge and experience. Working in a flexible, non-hierarchical, low ego environment enables us to be responsive, using technology to support working in a smart, agile way with people empowered to carry out their work. We aspire to be a destination employer, creating an environment where all of our people are enabled to succeed. We are really proud of our low, healthy churn, which is half the industry level, which is a result of the hard work, focus, and efforts of all of our leaders and contributes to our positive culture. We've highly engaged, skilled teams with an 86% employee advocacy score.
The number of our people recommending GT to as a great place to work. As a member of the 5% Club, we are one of 20 companies awarded the platinum level, which provides recognition of our commitment to providing earn-and-learn opportunities for our young people. One of the ways that we do this is through our award-winning graduate program. We were awarded the top company for graduates to work for and number two for apprentices and trainees by JobCrowd. This is really important to us as it's voted for by graduates and trainees. We prioritize health, safety, and well-being, supporting our people in various ways, including our Be Well program, encouraging an agile, flexible approach to work, shared learning and development, which contributes to the retention of our great people.
So let's talk a little bit about how we ensure we have the resources and capabilities that we need to deliver, recognizing that it's in challenging and competitive market. We developed our retain and gain people strategy to support the delivery of our sustainable growth strategy, to enable people to grow and develop their skills and careers with us. As part of this, we spent the past 18 months or so developing our EVP, our employee value proposition, our Grow Together People pledge, which supports our retain and gain activity at each point of an employee's journey. So let's look at some of the things we do to ensure we have a good mix of resources to deliver now and for the future. Retaining our people is a key priority for us, which is evident in our low employee churn rate and strong engagement.
We launched our internal mobility program, Explore, last year, and in the past six months, we've made 64 placements as a result of the program. Its aim is to create opportunities for our people to gain new experiences, support a move to a different part of the business, location, geography, permanently or as a secondment, and that means supporting moves from both a career and a personal perspective. This contributes to the development, retention, engagement of our people together with our succession planning activity, which is embedded in our business. It's owned by the respective leadership teams with a group overview. It enables us to forward plan our resources, promote from within. For example, all of our build division MDs have been internal promotions, as have our environment or more recently, specialist service leadership changes.
In the past six months, we've made 236 internal promotions across the business, 28% of which were women through this activity. We use peer-to-peer coaching and mentoring together with team and one-to-one coaching, supported by our external coaching partner. This approach aligns very much with our 70/20/10 learning model that we adopt, meaning 90% of our learning comes from on the job or learning through others, with only 10% through more formal routes. We believe that working collaboratively, creating opportunities to learn together as our people work alongside each other, whether that be a site, project, in offices, enables us to create the two-way learning opportunities between team members with different levels of experience.
With bespoke career paths, a range of formal structured development programs, for example, Leading the GT Way, together with our virtual GT Academy, which hosts a wealth of information and tools to provide self-learning and upskilling opportunities. We are also rolling out our inclusive leadership workshops, delivered, sorry, internally by our EDI team to support our inclusive journey as we grow. So let's look at our gain activity. This is focused on the attraction of new talent into our business to ensure we have a good balance of teams, skills, knowledge, experience, and resources for now and the future. As I talked earlier, our Early Careers Program is a key focus area for us and supports us in building our diverse talent pipeline for the future. We have 400+ early careers people working in the business today....
We generally bring in around 140, 150 each year. Our 2024 intake is split roughly 50/50 between grads, trainees, and apprentices, providing a really good mix. As part of our aim to increase the number of women into the construction sector and GT, we've partnered with the DWP to develop a two-year Mentoring the Next Generation program. This is focused on school-aged females, which we are piloting this year, initially working with high schools to debunk the myths around the construction sector, providing mentoring and coaching, and showing the worth of opportunities in our sector. We continue to attract people through the usual tried and tested recruitment routes, focused on more experienced candidates, and invested in our in-house resourcing team to support our activity.
As the diversity of skills we need grows and to widen our talent pools, we also hire for potential, which is focused on values, behaviors, and skills, as we know that one of the most important skills for the future is the ability to learn. This enables us to bring people in with potential from wider talent pools, for example, ex-military, with aligned values and behaviors. Aligned to the development of our Grow Together EVP, we've used focused social media campaigns and data insights to target specific roles to build talent pools, for example, in highways. We launched our new careers website earlier this year, and we used social media and data to further build our brand awareness, both within and out with our sector. All of this activity is underpinned by our strong values-led, inclusive culture, high engagement, and competitive, flexible rewards and benefits package.
Let's hear from some of our graduates.
This is the best decision I've made. It's been great so far. They've been very patient with their grads. We've had a lot of one-to-ones, a lot of involvement from all parts of the company. I think, I think it's definitely been great.
I think Galliford Try stood out for me because they had a clear, structured program. I think a lot of other companies that other companies didn't have. You could kind of see how you would develop over the two-year program.
We've had so many different team-building exercises that, like, connected us with other graduates in the company.
The graduate program has definitely kind of equipped me with the skills to have a successful career, because they've not only taught us leadership skills, but also how to work well as part of a team. So I feel like I'm quite equipped to be thrown in at any kind of position.
I've heard many good things about Galliford Try. Mainly, I was told that not only did they win Graduate Employer of the Year, but also that they had an award-winning graduate program. So I thought that if there's anywhere to go, clearly someone who's got an award for their graduate program would be a good place to pick. At this point, only halfway through the program, I've still developed some fantastic skills that I'm sure will serve me really well in my career. They take care of you here as well, and they do give a lot of effort to graduates, and they give them a lot of time and attention to be able to grow within the business.
Galliford Try as a whole, I think, are a really people-oriented company. They really care for their staff. There's so many staff benefits and employee benefits that you can utilize.
I would describe today in one word as challenging.
Absolutely fantastic. It's been great.
Wild. Very wild.
So why will we continue to deliver? With the confidence that we have the right people with the right skills mix, supported by technology to deliver our strategy to 2030. We have balanced teams, highly skilled, experienced, and engaged people who can support and mentor our early careers. We have strong retention, as well as the ability to attract new talent with new skills and experiences. And as you've already heard from Mark and Dave, we are using technology and digitalization to enable our people and teams to do more with less efficiently, maximizing how we utilize our resources. This ensures that we retain our progressive and co-inclusive culture and have the right teams to deliver our strategy today and in the future. I'll now hand over to Andrew, who will take you through the financial overview.
Thank you, Vikki. Afternoon, everybody. So I just want to start with a reminder. So since we de-merged the housebuilding business back in January 2020, we have consistently delivered strong financial performance, and we consistently delivered predictable, profitable growth. And remember, that performance has been delivered against the backdrop of COVID, of inflation, and of other supply-side shocks. And yet, we've delivered, in the period since first of July 2020, a total shareholder return of 147%, and that includes GBP 56 million of cash returned to our shareholders over that period. So for me, that demonstrates the really strong foundations in the business, and it demonstrates the benefit of our disciplined approach to contract selection and to contract delivery.
It's this strong foundation, coupled with the long order book visibility that Bill referred to at the start, which provides us with the confidence now to look forward to 2030. As well as risk management and operational discipline, that excellent financial performance, of course, has been delivered from the backdrop of a really strong balance sheet. As we move forward, we're gonna continue to prioritize a strong balance sheet, because it provides excellent support for our operations, it gives really good confidence to our clients, and it helps us to attract a really high-quality supply chain for the business. Over the last three and a half years, our average month-end cash has averaged GBP 156 million, and of course, we've had no debt and no pension liabilities to fund.
On top of that, we have our PFI asset portfolio, and importantly, we continue to have really strong support from the surety markets, with current facilities in place of around GBP 300 million from 6 surety providers. We've also been able to use our balance sheet strength to invest in the growth of the business. So we've made four acquisitions over the last two and a half years. We've revamped our customer relationship, financial procurement, HR, and commercial systems. We've invested into our wider digital capabilities that you heard from Dave, and into our employee value proposition that you've just heard from Vikki. And we've also shown that at the right time, when it's right to do so, we'll provide additional returns to our shareholders over and above the ordinary dividend. And everybody, that capital allocation framework remains unchanged.
What you will see in a moment is that the growth in the business is gonna be a little bit more biased towards our infrastructure business rather than our building business as we go forwards. And traditionally, infrastructure does have a slightly lower cash profile than building. But we will continue to be cash generative, and we'll continue to have the flexibility and the opportunity to invest further in the business, whether that be into our adjacent markets or into future bolt-on M&A as well. And I'd expect us to do that whilst remaining within our existing cash to revenue trend lines of around 8%-12%. And bear in mind, 8% of GBP 2.2 billion, that's around GBP 175 million. That's not significantly different.
The lower end of those trend lines is not significantly different to our current cash performance. I did just mention M&A. Now, you can see on the slide, we have, over the last two or three years, developed a really good track record of successfully identifying, acquiring, and integrating companies. So you can see four acquisitions there since 2021, with NMCN and Lintott coming together, of course. Now, I have just said, in terms of the capital allocation framework, that allows for further investment into M&A. But I think it's really important everybody understands the targets that we're setting out today do not assume any further acquisitions.
So what we'll do is we'll assess potential acquisition opportunities through the lens of the strategic priorities that we've set out today, and in particular, whether those bolt-on acquisitions would be able to accelerate delivery, for example, by bringing in additional capabilities into the group. And of course, we'll use the experience that we've gained from these four acquisitions as we make that assessment, but the targets themselves are entirely, organic. So as you saw in the RNS, this morning, we've today announced, our financial targets through to 2030, and importantly, everybody, these targets have been developed on a bottom-up basis. So this is not Bill and I kind of setting some targets into the business. This is something that we've worked with the business to develop. So revenue will grow to in excess of GBP 2.2 billion.
That is double our 2021 full year revenue, and that demonstrates a compound annual growth rate over that period of over 8%. But again, remember, everybody, Bill and I are not fixated on that. We're pretty relaxed about revenue. We grow because the market opportunity is there to grow. More importantly, is about margin, and our divisional operating margin will increase to 4%. And again, that is double what we achieved in 2021. And that growth is partly through operational delivery, and it's partly through the changing mix of the business, with the margin in affordable homes and the adjacent markets and special services businesses being higher than in traditional construction. And I'll come back to that mix change in a moment. With increased leverage of central cost, the overall EBITA will increase to around about 3.5%.
Of course, what that means at GBP 2.2 billion of revenue, PBT will rise to around 3x our June 2023 level. EPS will rise similarly, with strong growth as well in return on equity. And the continued cash generation will support our ordinary dividend, and again, that will rise to around triple the FY 2023 level. That's based on today's 1.8x cover. I just want to pick up on the final bullet on the slide there as well. So we're not specifically talking today about our ESG metrics and targets, but they do remain in place and remain important to us. And you'll remember, this covers a whole raft of things from carbon, social value, employee advocacy, reducing waste, and so on. And the really important thing on these, everybody, is that these are embedded in the business.
They're embedded into the operations because they help us to win work and they help us to grow the business. You heard today from Vikki on people. I think each of Angela, Bill, and Mark have touched on carbon, and actually, very recently, we've just retained our triple A rating, ESG rating from MSCI. This remains really important to us, and those, those metrics and targets do remain in place. In terms of the financial growth of the business, so really importantly, all parts of the business have got the opportunity to continue to grow in their existing markets, and all parts of the business also have adjacent market growth opportunities.
So you can see in the chart, which is kind of illustrative, the growth in building will mainly come through the affordable housing offering that Angela talked about earlier on. The growth in infrastructure, that includes highways, water, as well as the asset management and water technologies businesses that Mark talked to. And of course, as Mark said, that will flatten a little bit as we transition from AMP7 to AMP8. And then the specialist services on the top that Bill referred to earlier, and at the right time, as they continue to grow, as Bill said, we will look to separate those out so that you can start to see their contribution, you can start to see the benefit they have to the business. So just in terms of how that split works as we get to 2030.
So within the existing core markets, we are prioritizing disciplined growth, and that's really focused on margin improvement. And that margin will improve towards 3%-3.5%, driven by contract selection, so the right embedded margins in the business. And Bill showed the slide right at the start, with the 98.5% of our order book is already procured on an other than price competitive basis. We'll drive margin by operational excellence. That's about delivering right first time using digital tools and so on, as, as Dave referred to. And of course, we'll drive margin by increased overhead leverage. But you can see on the bottom there, the revenue growth is biased towards those higher margin adjacent markets, and that includes specialist services and, affordable housing. And collectively, they'll contribute around about GBP 600 million or so by 2030.
You can see in the table, the 4% divisional operating margin that we're targeting is the blended outcome across those different parts of the business. I think it's worth saying, because of course, due to that mix change, the margin growth from 3%-4% will be biased towards the later part of the strategy period as those adjacent markets volumes start to really come through. Of course, what this will look like, in Bill's favorite graph, when we get to 2030, will look more like this. This is illustrative, but you can see the growth potential of the business will continue on that sort of trajectory. Just to conclude, the group is in really good shape to continue to deliver significant further profitable growth and significant increased shareholder returns through to 2030.
The investment case is set out in detail on the slide, focused on the robust market opportunities, rigorous risk management, the progressive culture that Vikki referred to, and the strong financial position of the group. As I just said a moment ago, dividend per share is set to triple over that period, and that will drive continued strong shareholder returns across that period. Of course, I'm very conscious of the fact, by the way, that I will not be in the group to deliver that. This is my final Galliford Try presentation, so I'm not gonna be here as the group delivers this. I'd just like to say kind of one thing on that, which is I'm really proud of what the group has done over the last four years and the position the group is now in.
I'm really excited for the company in terms of the prospective, so I think this is a really exciting growth strategy for the group. I suppose the most important reflection I've got is that I'm absolutely confident that the team is in place up and down the country to deliver the plans that we've set out today. That's the financial review, and I'll hand back to Bill to wrap up.
All right, thanks, Andrew. You would have seen in the RNS this morning, actually, that Andrew will actually leave Galliford Try at the end of this month after 12 years. So I'd just like to take this opportunity, Andrew, to thank you. For me personally, over the last 4 years, you've been a great help to me and the business, of course, for the last 12 years, fantastic contribution to the business as a whole, and to wish you all the very best for the future. Thank you. The downside to that, of course, is that I take interim responsibility for finance. The good part of that is I'm very ably supported by Phil Drew, who's over there, by Martin Cooper, who's in the audience somewhere, there he is, by Neil Cocker, and some very experienced and very competent finance people.
So, you are in good hands, I can assure you, and that'll stay in place until Kris Hampson joins the business in September. So in summary, everyone, we're in, we're in really good shape. We've got a strong balance sheet, great order book, no debt, no pension fund liabilities, a great bunch of people. And the real point I want to end on is that our robust attitude to risk remains front and center as we grow the business in a disciplined manner through to 2030. And that's the message I'd like to leave you on. So we'll go to Q&A now. I'll just introduce some of the other people who are here today, just so you can see, onto the more difficult questions. So the speakers all come up back up on the stage here.
The board team is here, so I won't go through all that. You can read that for yourselves, but excellent team of people here to help us out. And of course, if you want to ask me any more particular questions about their specialties over, of course, one later, that would be great. So would you like to come up, everybody? Can I ask, when you ask a question, just if you let us know who you are and the organization, please? Mark.
Thanks. Mark Hassan from Target Capital. Just on that, GBP 1.4 billion- GBP 2.2 billion, obviously, we see the adjacent services coming in there, but the core business of up for just 14% in that period, I mean, you're underlying strong markets, you know, the new AMP program and what's gonna come in, other things like power and everything else, seems quite, quite tame to be 14%. Just a few.
Well, I think the outgoing FD should answer that question.
Yeah, so don't forget, within the 1.4 we delivered in June 2023, Mark, there is a little bit, so in our specialist services business, it was probably sort of GBP 100 million, but there was a little bit in there of specialist services. Similarly, you know, the water asset management is growing. So if you like, it's not quite as perhaps as stark as that. But I think what we're really prioritizing is the growth in those higher margin businesses. So again, if you look at building, for example, you know, we're focusing on the affordable housing sector, you know, rather than trying to grow into markets which, you know, where we don't see a strong market margin opportunity.
So we've. That's why we're, you know, we are focusing on those higher margin adjacent markets.
Yeah. So it is about the mix, and obviously, if we get there a bit quicker, that would be good. Andrew?
Yeah, Andrew Nussey, Peel Hunt. A couple of questions, please. First of all, on affordable housing, you've obviously been out of the market for four years, as you've said. What visibility do you have on the pipeline of new opportunities around frameworks that are gonna allow you and get that position to deliver GBP 250 million of revenue? Or can you basically contract without having to go through frameworks to deliver that growth? So first question, please.
Yeah, of course. Yeah. Well, we have a good, good visibility on the total pipeline in the areas that we're interested in. So we've done a study across the country of the general pipelines, particularly around urban centers, where our mid-rise product will be what we will be able to deliver. In terms of the frameworks, yeah, we've got good visibility over the next 18 months to two years, in particular on the frameworks that are coming up. And as I mentioned in my presentation, just last week, we were shortlisted on a really good London framework, and we've got a number of them that we will be going for over the next few years, as well as the ones that we've been successful in over the past two, three months.
Presumably, they can mobilize pretty quickly once you're onto the framework and actually getting the spades in the ground?
Absolutely. And the Homes England DPS is probably a really good example of that. So, the DPS, you know, the, the, I mean, Homes England are one of the largest kind of owners of land in the whole country, and they've got massive and massive investment to put in. So we've got a good pipeline and a good visibility of what's going on through that as well.
Thank you. Second question on environmental. You obviously reference you're restructuring the water division to align some of the various competencies. Is there a degree of risk associated with that, given where allegedly there's a lot of activity going on at the moment, and obviously, the ability to win and retain frameworks?
Not at all. I mean, from a point of view of the restructure, the restructure is within the existing board, so it's really shuffling the deck a little bit, but it is maintaining. It's actually got a benefit. So maintain focus on the asset creation frameworks, because that is about getting operational excellence into those frameworks. But it is making sure we join together all of the asset management businesses into one coherent group. So basically, if we look at water technologies, which is mainly a manufacturing facility, what we're looking for there is to be able to support that by actually doing the site work associated with the installations. By bringing the capital maintenance teams and the manufacturing teams together, it'll support the growth journey.
Last one, if I may. Just at a high level, when we look out to 2030, the suggestion from the maths is that the exposure to public and regulated markets will continue to increase as a proportion of overall revenues.
It's pretty constant, I'd guess. I'd guess it's pretty constant, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I mean.
I mean, well, I mean, it'll, it'll be relevant. If you look at the specialist businesses, that's a, you know, the, the fire doors can be private sector as well as public sector. But yeah, we've always said private sector is 10%-15%, but we're relatively, you know, ebbs and flows a bit. We're relatively relaxed, and a little bit of it is timing, a little bit of it is particular contracts coming through, so.
I don't think it'll vary.
I'm not sure there's a big difference.
Okay. Thank you.
Joe, behind you, please, Andrew.
Thank you. Joe Brent from Liberum. If I could ask, a couple of questions. There's a very good slide you show, showing the growth in, the core business and the target areas and the margin. Could you just unpack the, the growth areas between affordable homes and specialist services in terms of the revenue contribution that might make and the margin, expected margins on those two areas?
Yes. Should I cover that? So affordable housing, as Andrew said, will be, you know, around GBP 250 million, you know, something like that, delivering 1,200 units or so in 2030. And of course, that will, t hat's coming from a standing start, so of course, the growth will be a little back-end loaded. The specialist businesses, yeah, Bill said, well, they will grow to around GBP 300 million, that sort of order of magnitude over the period. You know, but obviously, some of these, yeah, the opportunities may accelerate or otherwise as we get there, of course, so.
But those will be the two big, big pieces, and of course, through the asset management and water technologies pieces, kind of makes up the remainder of the growth there.
So the margin part of that question?
Yeah, well, the margin part, so, sorry.
Well, I was just gonna say, mid to high single figures.
Yeah.
Thank you. On water, it sounds like you talk about controlled growth, which is obviously a feature of the whole business. Clearly, the market's doubling. Am I right in thinking that you probably won't double your business and you'd rather be selective and drive the margin?
Yes, absolutely. I mean, from a point of view, what we don't wanna do, as I said in the presentation, we don't want to take on significant volumes of work where there's gonna be supply chain capacity, and especially in the early years of the next AMP cycle. So it is very much about controlling that growth in those asset creation businesses—but looking to lever as much opportunity for our, sorry, for our asset management businesses from our asset creation frameworks.
Yeah. Thank you. Were you done?
I finished.
Alastair. I know who was next. Sorry, Adrian.
Okay. A question for Angela. Can you run through where your partners are likely to evolve in the next few years? Some of the bigger housing associations, not least L&Q yesterday, said they're basically pulling out of, of hinting very heavily they're pulling out of a new build. They were promising originally about 100,000 homes over 10 years. Other housing associations are facing their own particular challenges, financial and otherwise. Is there an alternative source of partners for you to deliver that growth? And what, where will they come, probably looking at a Labour government and their new terms and so on?
Yeah, I mean, as, as you said, you're absolutely right. The, the sector has a lot of headwinds coming at it at the moment. But that demand, as we've demonstrated today, the, the demand is huge, and, you know, you only have to reflect on things like in London at the moment, they're spending GBP 90 million every single month on temporary accommodation because we just don't have, we don't have the affordable homes and the, and the ones that we need. Absolutely, there are some of the housing associations who have slowed down their programs. But there is still a lot out there that are coming through the framework, so we're still delivering. And mind you, we're delivering across the country.
We are delivering in the urban centers where, you know, there is a big, there's a big kind of need for that to, to regenerate our towns and cities. So some of the housing associations that I've been speaking to have been, that's, that's where they're at, that's what they want to deliver on. So we will be focusing on housing associations and councils. You know, the, the great thing with councils is they've got strategic land, so you can work up in partnerships, you can, you can deliver things, and it's getting in early and having those good conversations and, and building up that relationship to make sure that, you know, by the time we get to 2030, we are delivering out those 1,200 homes a year.
But there are others who deliver affordable homes in the sector, who are private developers who have to deliver affordable homes. And again, we'll be looking at building up relationships with them as well so that, you know, there's an alternative to, to the other partners that we're, we're looking to work with.
So if I'm understanding right, the councils will become a greater proportion of your overall partnership delivery, maybe towards the end
It's honestly difficult to say because I sincerely believe, having come from a housing association, you know, they've still got, you know, we've got 31, 30, might be a few more strategic partners in this country who have to deliver affordable homes, and are given money through Homes England to do so. I do think the evidence is showing that councils are turning back to delivering more of their own affordable homes because they're seeing, you know, the revenue gains that they can get from actually doing that, and they need the revenue in, you know, into their organizations to help fund other things as much as possible. So yeah, I think there is a... They will become a partner, but there's 213 councils who are landlords, and there's about 1,600 housing associations. Now, some small, some much bigger.
So yeah, I think there will be a blend, and it will be, we will be focusing on those urban conurbations that I spoke about, you know, the likes of, you know, I don't know, Birmingham, Salford, Manchester, where, you know, that, that midrise, is really needed. Plus, around the, later living sector as well. That's a big sector, huge demand of that. We reckon that probably, possibly a quarter of all of the homes that we need over the next kind of five years, need to be some form of a later living product. So there's, there's just plenty to go at.
And just finally, have you talked to Homes England about alternative strategies to housing associations and local authorities? Is there another plan mulling?
Well, they work, so Homes England, I'm not saying that we've had that particular conversation with them, with them obviously, we've had great conversations with them, and they're very welcoming us back into the sector. I think what the issue is, that so they do work with the private sector. You'll know the English Cities Fund is news. So there's a good example of how they will get into, you know, joint ventures, et cetera, with the private sector to deliver those homes, but they still need contractors to deliver those homes, and that, and that's where those numbers will come from.
Adrian?
Adrian Kearsey, Panmure Gordon, soon to be Panmure Liberum. A few questions, if I may, and they're probably mostly sort of toward, directed towards Andrew. When you look at the evolving sales mix, sort of towards 2030, to what extent will net working capital evolve as a proportion of sales, given the change of, of that, that mix? Perhaps I'll take it one by one.
Yeah. So I think the important thing about the mix first of all, it's not directly your question, is that the mix is all into areas that we are already in. You know, so for housing, we're already building PRS. We're already doing the work in the specialist businesses. So in terms of execution risk, and so on these are all markets we already know and understand, and the capital requirements for all of those remains low. We're going in as contractor, we'll be paid as we go, so we'll still be operating cash generative. Yeah, of course, there's opportunities, as Andrew said earlier, in the future, to look at other routes in affordable housing as we are doing in terms of development in PRS, but the base requirement, capital requirements are still very low.
I think the capital requirements alone will still be cash generative and say that t he mix may be a little bit less than the traditional building space, but it will still be very cash generative and support both the ability to invest more in the business and to deliver the 1.8 times covered dividend.
Does the 4% margin target in terms of divisional margin on a pre- sort of pre-central cost basis-
Yep.
One of the slides seem to indicate 3.5% post central cost. Is, is that-
Yeah.
Am I correct in that?
Yeah. So I think post central costs and including, you know, the investments business, which obviously is a little bit lumpier, then the overall EBITDA will be around 3.5%.
And then sort of one final one, if I may. Some of the supply chain, especially the merchants, talk about the sector's sort of inability to adopt digital. And you— There seems to be, on the contracting side, especially with yourselves, an acceleration of adopting digital in terms of because of everything they can deliver. I suppose this is perhaps sort of across the board in terms of to what extent are you having to bring people in, in order to take people through that journey? To what extent are you training people in order to understand both the technical aspects but also the project benefits sort of of that?
Right. Yeah. I think, I think, there's a number of key parts. I think fundamentally for us, we have a very mature supply chain, and through our Advantage through Alignment approach, where we do more with less, if you like. We have a very, close relationship with those members of the supply chain. And as a sort of, as a competent and sort of growing partner, you'd expect we want to do our activity and our work in true partnership, both upstream, downstream of our supply chain and laterally with, with partners and stakeholders. So through the Advantage through Alignment framework, we actually do bring them on board. We work closely with them, and we will help train, we help upskill. So we very much wanna...
We're always embracing digital, and we are accelerating it, the important stuff really quickly, but we will bring our key partners on the journey with us, and we will support them. 'Cause ultimately, that, if we're successful, they're successful, we're all successful. So it's really about true partnerships, and we will bring them on the journey with us. So yes is the short answer.
Thank you.
Hi, afternoon, Stephen Rawlinson from Applied Value. Just in terms of, probably related to Mark's question earlier, I've got a couple of questions as well. But related to Mark's questions earlier, GBP 1.1 million in 2021, GBP 2.2 billion in 2030. Inflation would account for some of that. So what sort of bill cost inflation are you assuming in this plan so that we can actually understand better the real growth that's taking place in the business, rather than, so, you know, what just comes because actually you're able to pass on any costs or price increases to your customers? Can you just help us out a little bit with that, please?
Yeah. Inflation is in at what we'd call normal, so it'll be 2%-3% over the long run. You know, what we see at the moment is prices haven't come down, but inflation's stopped. So we're back to what I'd call business as usual. You know, there's odds and sods go up and down as they used to before the big spike, but we're back to a steady state now.
Right. And in terms of the cost growth, then, I mean, obviously, you need highly skilled people in some of the areas you're gonna move into. So obviously, the margin will be growing, partly because, as you say, you're going to change in mix. But are there sort of rises in labor costs and other areas that we should be thinking about, particularly the cost of digital, for example, where it may be that there'll be some erosion of margin in certain spots?
Well, digital will save us money and enhance our bottom line, that is for sure. And remember that we pass the majority of these costs on to our clients. So the vast majority of our work, as you saw, 98% is done, 98.5% is won in some sort of a negotiated position.
And so, those, whatever the actual cost, if we're bidding a job today, we'll forecast. We'll have our actual cost today, and we'll forecast what we think is gonna happen to inflation over the tenancy of that project, and that'll be priced in. So we're only ever looking at the differential of what we've priced in already and what actually is happening, which is typically, apart from the spike a few years ago, not a lot.
And, can I ask a question, David, in and around digital, if you don't mind, please? It's, I mean, thank goodness you didn't mention AI, 'cause that really, really confused all of us.
That's another story. Do you see digital as a competitive advantage, and you're prepared to invest in something the other guys don't have? Or do you see digital as something that is available to all of the industry, that you need to just sort of maintain a pace with the rest of the sector? How do you see it? Because presumably, a lot of the software is universal and can be bought by your competitors as well as it can be bought by you. So in part, it's how you use it. But is it a competitive weapon, or is it just a price you've got to pay to stay in the game?
Yeah, I think there's two parts. I think the competitive weapon, if you like, for that terminology, I think if I looked at specialist services business, and if you looked at some of the special activity you've heard today, there's real potential in them organizations in terms of brainpower and the evolution of product, et cetera, et cetera. So I think that will give the business an edge as we move forward. In terms of the production that you're seeing today, a lot of that is accessible via our peer groups, for sure. I think what's unique about our business, if you like, is we don't just throw everything at lots of different products for the sake of it. It's just really focusing on what enhances our business and doing it really, really well and getting the benefit from it.
So it's just on a really targeted approach to make sure that the things that we do invest in and look to accelerate, and as Bill said, these products will. They don't cost money because they pay for themselves, because of the benefit we get on our projects. But I think what it's having a really targeted approach to make sure that we invest in the right products that deliver the plan that we set out and enhance the profitability to our projects. So I think our differentiator is, like, the way we go about doing it, very disciplined, very focused, and ensuring it delivers the plan and does it very, very well, and our teams can work with it in a really positive way.
Can I just actually follow you on to a more technical question? Part of the shareholder value that the group is delivering to the investors is in and around the PPP investments. Is it—does this plan assume you retain those, or is there something else going on in the background which you don't want to talk about?
No, we retain them. We've always said they put 10% interest income on the bottom line, and they're a good asset. They're a pretty liquid asset. If we wanted to sell them, we could quickly, but they contribute to the bottom line. And when they're contributing 10%, and we aspire to 4%, that makes sense to me to keep them.
Thank you.
Mark? Oh, sorry, go, Mark.
Sorry, whoever that was. Just, back to Andrew a second. Obviously, it was mentioned, you know, L&Q, et cetera, are dropping out here and there. But, and the, the local authorities will be accelerating, without, with or without, central government. Can you talk about, I mean, the for-profit affordable providers? That's been quite a growth area recently. Is that wrapped up in your plan, or is that sort of, you know, a bunch of people you need to get out and talk to much more? Thanks.
Yeah, I would, I would say the latter, definitely. It's on our kind of target hit list to go and talk to them and, and see, you know, the, the likes of Latimer at Clarion. We're already starting to have some conversations with them and just, just building up, for the future. But you're, you're absolutely right, the for-profits are... And they are increasing, and we know that they're, they're gonna be a big market over the next few years.
We'll get to you.
Colin Smith from Capital Access Group. Two questions from me, for me. Just thinking about the specialist business, I think you've answered the risk on the housing side, but if you think about the other part, the other GBP 300 million of revenue in those specialist businesses, do they come with a significantly different risk profile from the ones you're used to managing? Maybe say something around about that. And also, I think the question's kind of been touched on, it feels like maybe the growth could have been more ambitious, if I may put it that way. Could you maybe comment on, from your perspective, what the true limits to growth are, or what constrains growth from your perspective, to the numbers that you've given us today? Thank you.
Yeah. Well, let me start with the fact that the industry is littered with the carcasses of construction companies that tried to grow too fast. And so we grow in a sensible, civilized, disciplined manner, not biting off more than we can chew, making sure our risk profile comes first. We protect the balance sheet, and we've shown that it works. And then we augment those margins with clever stuff that keeps us ahead of the game. And I think, Steve, in your point, the laggards will notice after a period of time that they need to do something different, and they'll start to catch up. So I think that the growth aspirations are, they are bottom-up. And, you know, when, when...
What we said when we, when we brought out our 1,600 or GBP 1.6 billion target was, if we got there a bit earlier, then we'd have to do something. And we got there a bit earlier, and we're doing something. So, let's hope that in the fullness of time, we'll have this debate again, and it'll be before 2030. I don't know, but I think that's a sensible and aspirational target, and it balances aspiration and risk, in a market that's gonna be constrained in some respects, and we're not gonna bite off more than you can chew. You heard Mark saying that, yes, the water market is doubling. We're not gonna double with the water market.
We'll pick and choose where, where we're gonna play, and I think that's the right approach to take for a long, consistent, predictable performance. Sorry, did you have.
Depend on the risk in the specialist businesses outside of the, what I'd say, the housing business?
Yeah. Well, the risk profile is typically a lot less. These jobs are typically much shorter duration projects. If you look at asset intelligence, they'll come into a, you know, a building like this and put all sorts of clever technical solutions into motion detection and fire detection and intrusion detection, all sorts of things, which I don't fully understand. And that'll take, you know, weeks or months to install all these bits of kit and commission them. So it's quick in and quick out in those sorts of businesses. The fire protection businesses are long, stubborn, sort of long annuity-type income because the fire doors, as I said before, are a never-ending source of inspect, repair, replace. It'll never end, and there's a huge emphasis on there. I mean, as an example, Ian and I, where's Ian?
We were hosting the MOD at HMP Rye Hill a few months ago, and we were talking to them about modern methods of construction, how we can export that into the defense single living accommodation sort of market. And then we started to talk about the specialist businesses, and when we talked about fire doors, their eyes lit up. They said, "Oh, bane of our lives, bloody fire doors." Now, we are one of the... I think we are the only contractor who can offer them a service to repair their fire doors from Plymouth to Inverness. There's not a single other contractor who can do that. And that, I think, going back to my joining the dots, is the bigger opportunity there. So I think the risk profile is lower in the specialist businesses. We'll get there eventually. Sorry about that.
No worries. Adam McConkey, Lombard Odier. If I heard correctly, on social housing, you were talking about, bidding alongside the local, alongside the housing associations on land and talked to JV ventures with agreed exits. So question is, A, is that a prerequisite for coming back into that space? B, how much capital are you thinking about using from the balance sheet? And C, what sort of return, requirements make it worthwhile, for you?
Okay. I can't ever get past you, Adam. But, so the first thing, just remember, if, and, and pick up the cudgels off is Andrew, Angela. But we go into this on a contracting basis to start off with. So, until we reestablish ourselves from a standing start in the market, we'll be going in on a contracting basis. And then once we've reestablished our presence and grown a bit of momentum and a bit of critical mass, we'll look at whether we expand that into the more development-type partnerships, JV models. So that is the direction of travel. And on the margins, obviously, the contracting margin is, I'd guess, mid-single figures, and the development and partnership models are, of course, higher than that. Rightly so. Any more questions, anybody? Alastair.
Thank you. A question to Vikki. You mentioned that your churn rate is 10.8 and the industry's on 20. Is there a league table out there that, you know, who's better and who's worse? And how do you get to 20 if you don't actually have a league table?
So the 20% is, yeah, kind of data that is easily available, so, you know, if anybody Googled it, that's what you, y ou'd actually get 21.3. But it, yeah, circle 20.
Do you know, is there a widespread knowledge of who's better and who's worse than 10.8?
So there's not a league table out there. Do we kind of have an indication from our contacts, kind of what our competitors are from an informal perspective? Yeah, you have an idea.
Share it later.
We're in the top quartile. We're in the top quartile.
Certainly, yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
Thanks very much. Jonny Coubrough at Deutsche Numis. Thanks very much for what's been a very informative session. I've just got one more follow-up question on the affordable housing point, and in terms of transitioning from contracting into mixed tenure partnerships, what, what capability would you need to get into the business in order to do that? And how long does it take to build that kind of capability, do you think?
Well, you're sitting in the right place 'cause Phil sitting next to you will be leading that charge. So at the moment, our PRS developments business has spun out of the investments business, so the old PFI. So Phil and his team know all about the front end of setting up projects, getting them through planning permissions, strategic design, strategic consents, and all of those good things, put in place the funding, selling them on. And so I'd recommend you speak to Phil. So you're in exactly the right spot there.
Thanks.
Okay, Andrew.
I was just gonna say.
I can hear you.
On behalf of the investment community, thank you very much to Andrew Duxbury for his years of service.
Hear, hear.
Chris has got some very big, hard boots to fill, but yeah. Thank you very much, Andrew.
Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, just like all of our projects, we are dead on time, 5:00 P.M. The bar is open. Thank you very much for coming. Really appreciate it. Thank you.