As we approach the end of the year, it is with great pride that I consider the achievements of the Roberts Environmental team in 2018. We have expanded our reach, strengthened our team, won a fantastic range of new projects and picked up our first industry award.

Over the last 12 months we have been heavily involved in new development projects across a range of sectors, some of which have taken us right across the country.

In healthcare, we have worked with clients including Anchor Care Homes prior to their new developments in Bristol and Reading, as well as Caring Homes at their sites in Eastbourne, Chigwell and Benson.

It has been a busy year for us in the retail sector, with ground investigations on Asda sites in Wakefield, Hull, Stockport, Leighton & Beckton, Co-op sites in Ambleside and Swansea as well as number of B&Q and Lidl instructions.

A combination of healthy demand for new housing and arguably favourable planning conditions has led to a high volume of work for us this year with residential landowners. Whether it be a development of 5 homes or 500 homes, we continue to provide invaluable support to developers such as Mulgrave Properties, Home Group and Gleeson Homes as they look to ensure the viability of new schemes.

It has also been positive to see a growing number of landowners willing to speculate on investigating ground conditions at more challenging sites. Whilst in previous years we have found a reluctance to invest in due diligence on sites requiring more complex investigation, we are now finding that this situation is changing.

In the spring we celebrated our 6th anniversary and at the Insider Property Awards we were thrilled to be named Specialist Property Consultancy of the Year, providing fantastic recognition for our recent achievements.

Brexit has been an ever-present issue in 2018 and undoubtedly this will continue to be the case in the months ahead. Since August we have experienced a fall in new work with fund managers on investment projects. It is clear to me that in most cases this is due to uncertainty with many institutional organisations simply waiting for the ramifications of Brexit to play out before committing to significant spending.

Our growth in work with established property consultants such as GVA and George F White has also been a positive aspect of the last 12 months. Our ability to work alongside such firms and provide geo-environmental expertise to complement their range of skills is always a rewarding and successful partnership.

Our London office has proved to be an invaluable asset to the business this year and has enabled us to secure a number of new instructions further afield. Whilst our Grey Street office in Newcastle will always represent the head office of Roberts Environmental, having a base in Mayfair has provided us with greater access to new and existing clients in the South East.

As we look ahead to 2019, Brexit is undoubtedly the major factor to consider, however I am cautiously optimistic about the outlook.

We are actively looking to make two further appointments to our team within the next quarter to help service our growing client base. Due diligence is an integral component of the development cycle and I believe it will play an important part as we leave the EU.

We go into 2019 on the back of our best year to date, with an expanding instruction book which reflects the integrity and professionalism of the team. Our work is spread across the UK with clients in a range of sectors and markets, which puts us in a strong position going forwards.