AHR said turnover and profit slumped following last year鈥檚 vote to leave EU

AHR has said the regions are a better bet than Brexit-hit London after revealing its workloads slumped one fifth in the aftermath of last year鈥檚 vote to leave the EU.

The firm, which emerged from the Aedas split three years ago, saw revenue in the year to December 2016 fell 20% to just under 拢15m. Pre-tax profit nosedived by three quarters to 拢434,000.

In a statement accompanying its results, AHR pointed the finger of blame at Brexit and said last June鈥檚 EU result had 鈥渞esulted in softer growth expectations. We also experienced greater volatility in projects starts during the latter part of 2016.鈥�

The firm, which over the summer was appointed to the 拢35m Northern Centre of Excellence (pictured) for the Royal College of Physicians in Liverpool鈥檚 Knowledge Quarter development, also said its pipeline of work 鈥渋s visibly more short-term than it was pre-Brexit鈥� and that London had been especially hit by uncertainty following the vote.

But it added: 鈥淭he same is not true across the rest of the UK. We are finding that more developers are looking at the regions and that international money and investment in particular is moving towards major cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds.鈥�

It said that it was focusing on core sectors such as residential, especially the build to rent sector following its deal to snap up affordable housing specialist PCKO 18 months ago.

The bulk of its turnover 鈥� 拢13.4m 鈥� comes from the UK while the number of staff at the year end dropped from 192 to 163.

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