Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership (DGHP) has announced that Cruden has won its major £15 million contract to complete all the regeneration sites in Dumfries and Stranraer.

The company, one of Scotland’s largest independently owned development and construction groups, has an annual turnover of more than £150 million and employs more than 600 people.

The awarding of this contract will transform and complete areas of very poor quality housing and low demand into attractive developments in both Dumfries and Stranraer.

Billy Lockhart, Chairman of DGHP, said: "We are delighted to be able to announce the winning contractor for our multi-million regeneration contract is Cruden.

"It has taken some time to get to this stage as a result of procurement regulations, however, we are delighted that the works will be starting imminently, which means we will be able to complete the regeneration programme.

"Cruden is committed to work with DGHP to identify opportunities and we will work with them to attempt to employ as many local workers as possible for the project, which will be a substantial injection of work for the construction industry at this time."

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Allan Callaghan, CBRL Managing Director, commented: "Cruden is aware of the downturn in the construction industry generally and is particularly conscious of how this has affected local construction employment prospects since the demise of R&D Construction in the area. We will work with DGHP and fellow stakeholders to endeavour to provide as many employment opportunities as possible for skilled tradesmen local to the sites and do what we can to support local suppliers and sub-contractors where possible."

James Shirazi, Director of Investment with DGHP, added: "Following the demise of our former contractor, DGHP ran a dual procurement process to look at assigning the contract – this, if it had worked, would have been a quicker option and would have taken a relatively short space of time to get back on site.

"However, as a result of legal advice, we had no other option but to progress with full re-procurement. As the full re-tender of the works had to go through the European protocol for large scale contracts, it was a much lengthier process than we had hoped.

"We are delighted that now we have secured our new contractor and we very much look forward to working with them.

"The contract will see the completion of 150 houses over a two year period and will bring the conclusion of almost 400 new houses in the regeneration programme. We expect Cruden to be on-site very soon. As well as the 150 houses to be complete, we have also had some success with the for-sale properties and have introduced Mid-Market Rent as an option. This project remains our priority going forward, with the aim of completing these ambitious proposals across our region."

(GK)