North Yorkshire Council's commercial arm made a pre-tax profit of £3.2m last year — despite losses of the same value made by its housing division.
The Brierley Group delivered around £300,000 more in profit in 2024/25 than expected and provided an estimated £15.8m in shareholder value to the authority, a new council report concludes.
The strongest performers among the council’s companies were design consultants Align Property Partners and Align Property Services, which reported a joint pre-tax profit of £2.36m for the year.
The council’s share of the profits from waste company Yorwaste and NYNet, which provides high-speed internet, were estimated to be £1.28m and £403,000 respectively.
Education services provider NYES also reported a surplus of £1.40m for the year, while NY Highways (NYH) has a draft pre-tax profit of £305,000, compared to a budget of £57,000.
The report said that at the end of the year, NYH returned £3.15m of revenue back to the council in line with its business plan.
The only division to report a loss was housing developer Brierley Homes, which reported a loss of £3.2m in comparison to a budgeted profit of £200,000.
This loss was due to a delay in some sales, reprofiling of the construction programme to ensure returns were maximised, and a move away from pure commercial housing delivery to the provision of above-policy affordable homes, the report said.
It added that the delayed sales were caused by several factors, including planning and legal issues.
An independent review of the operating model of Brierley Homes is currently underway, with a report expected to be presented to senior officers next month.
The Brierley Group annual update was prepared by Kerry Metcalfe, the council’s assistant director for commercial, property and procurement.
She said in the report that the challenges faced by the wider Brierley Group related to resourcing, recruitment and retention of professional staff, as well as inflationary cost pressures.
She added:
“The labour market continues to be challenging in all sectors, limiting a lot of businesses’ ability to expand, with a significant rise in the number of economically inactive people, leading to vacancies across the portfolio.
“Resourcing issues within the Brierley Group are exacerbated by the ongoing workload pressures arising from local government reorganisation and a lack of capacity within the council’s professional support service teams to assist with the development of growth plans across the group.”
The report will be presented to the council’s executive committee next Tuesday (September 2nd).
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