It has many strings to its bow, but it is the renewables industry that the Banks Group is focusing on as one of its growth areas. As part of this month’s Success feature, in conjunction with the North East Chamber of Commerce, Lindsay Parker hears about the company’s work.

THERE is no doubting the Banks Group’s dedication to corporate social responsibility judging by the posters in the offices of its environment and community director, Mark Dowdall.

There’s a very happy scout leader pictured in one poster, dib dib dibbing with delight after receiving a donation from the Banks Community Fund.

Next to him, team members from Wolsingham Cricket Club are all smiles in a bowling action shot after receiving money for new kit. Then there’s the new eco home built to house the bats at Sheraton Park, in Durham.

Mr Dowdall said: “It is our way of giving something back, and our whole company approach is development with care.”

The company takes its commitment to the community seriously and has been an integral part of Tow Law, County Durham, for more than 30 years.

The business was set up 1976 by Harry Banks and his brothers, initially to mine opencast sites, mainly around Tow Law, near Bishop Auckland.

Over the years, Mr Banks, who is still hands-on as chairman today, realised the firm could diversify to supply more of its own needs.

Mr Dowdall said: “I think Harry was wise enough and had the foresight to realise that there was an opportunity to influence and take control of more aspects of the business.

“So he developed his own haulage business, working with his own plant machinery rather than hiring it in, and rather than working on contracts from the National Coal Board, he set up his own development team to get planning permission for the sites and a marketing team to sell the coal.”

Fast forward more than 30 years, and thanks to Mr Banks’ vision, his company, now based in West Cornforth, County Durham, includes Banks Brothers Transport; HJ Banks Construction, HJ Banks Mining and Banks Developments, which also brings renewable energy and waste developments under its control.

It employs 350 people – 220 of them in the North-East – and has an annual turnover of about £45m.

From a relatively small team initially, the Banks Developments side of the business has flourished. The first foray into property came at two sites the company had been mining in the early Eighties. They used opencast mining techniques, putting the earth back in layers after removing the coal so property could be built on solid foundations.

Later, the company expanded its property portfolio, bringing about major urban renewal on predominantly brownfield sites. Along the way, it gathered a team that could deal with the entire development process, from land negotiations to planning applications, operations, sales and aftercare.

More recently, from its energy roots in coal, the company has moved into large-scale wind farm developments.

Outside Mr Dowdall’s office window at Tow Law are the vast white blades of one of the wind turbines, part of a £33m project to build the largest wind farm in the North-East. Renewable energy is the way forward, he says.

“About a third of the electricity we use comes from coal-fired power stations, and 70 per cent of that coal is imported, so if we are to have a more secure, sustainable and affordable energy supply, it makes sense to look at producing our own coal and to use other fuels like renewables.

“Less than five per cent of electricity we use comes from renewable sources and we think the renewables industry creates fantastic opportunities.”

He added that it was an opportunity that British companies should take advantage of. He said: “At the moment, when you see a wind farm, the turbines are made in places like Germany, Denmark and the US.

“We would like to see them made here. If we do not get our act together quickly and provide the infrastructure, the manufacturing side will continue to go to the rest of the world. What we need to do is speed up the whole planning process for energy infrastructure which will, in turn, encourage British manufacturers to get behind it.”

The reason why the planning process is often slow is because of the amount of negative publicity the schemes can attract. As a large-scale developer, Banks is no stranger to the occasional bout of negative publicity.

Two schemes in particular – the £150m offices and eco homes development of Durham’s Mount Oswald Golf Course, and the city’s Elvet Waterside regeneration programme, comprising homes and offices which Banks has been chosen to develop with Esh Group – have caused great controversy.

Mr Dowdall said: “We are currently looking at how we can take on board the issues raised by some people and progress with the schemes in a way that will be acceptable to all parties.”

He said that, over the years, the company has taken a more consultative approach in an attempt to find out the views of the public.

He said: “Our approach to development now is to be more transparent and open to suggestions of how things can be improved.

“We will go public about a scheme now before we have a planning application ready. There is an opportunity for that community to influence how that development will take place. If we are going to come up with an application that is an environmentally and socially acceptable scheme that will deliver benefits for the whole area, it is far better that we do that at the early stage of a development than later down the road at the planning application stage.”

The company has a good planning success rate, with 87 per cent of submitted plans gaining approval. The group has about 140 projects in development at any one time across the country, mainly in the North, and each year it submits 20 to 30 major planning applications.

One application is to develop the site at Tow Law, creating eco-offices and low-carbon houses. In addition, the company plans to create residential and work units ideal for small businesses.

Another major development is to create 467 homes on 47 acres of predominantly brownfield land at Cambois, on the Northumberland coast. Most of the company’s property development proposals bring a sustainable element to them, including eco-housing, creating wildlife areas and using biomass, waste and even minewater to heat the developments.

Even the waste side of the business – the company has previously developed landfill sites across the North and the Midlands – is going green.

Mr Dowdall said: “Landfill is becoming less attractive in terms of an option for the disposal of waste, so we are looking at sites where we may have a sustainable waste and energy park.

“It would see waste come in to be sorted and recycled wherever possible, and electricity-producing generators fuelled by biogas.”

Despite its success, the developments side of the business has felt the effects of the recession.

Mr Dowdall said: “The property market has been extremely difficult, but we have tried to use this as an opportunity to make sure that we have got developments in place, ie planning permissions secured, so that when things do pick up, we can hit the ground running.”

As partner members of the North East Chamber of Commerce, Mr Dowdall appreciates the chamber’s help in giving companies a louder voice, particularly during the recession.

He said: “It gives businesses a really powerful voice and the work it does in policy formulation and with lobbying is excellent.”

The renewables sector is one area he sees as having growth potential. It has wind farm applications in various stages of the planning process, including up to nine turbines for land on the southern edge of Hamsterley Forest, in County Durham, and up to ten planned for its Moor House scheme on land to the north-east of Barmpton, near Darlington.

Mr Dowdall said: “We see growth in some of the onshore wind schemes, and also there is clearly still a demand for coal.

“Long term, it is about sustainability.

People will always need energy, places to live and work, and their waste disposing. We need to make sure that we do all three in a sustainable way.”

Its links with the community are also strengthened by the Banks Community Fund, which funds projects near its developments. In the past two years, the company has donated £200,000 to groups within the Tow Law area alone.

In the future, it means there will no doubt be a few more smiling faces on the walls of Mr Dowdall’s offices.

He said: “We are not just in this for the Banks Group.

“If we can play a part in raising the profile of the North-East and making it a better place to live and work, that is something that benefits everyone.”