James Halldron Associates

James Halldron Associates has extended its geographical reach through the transfer of its South East regional  office to London effective from July 2014. Its broad client base, depth of industry knowledge and extensive commitment to customer support and care will provide the South East with high quality Structural and Architectural services offered in other parts of the UK.

This expansion comes amid turbulent economic times. The global recession, having so badly affected all areas of business, including the Construction Industry, meant the loss of many clients in the Housing Development field. However, in order to meet the challenges of such times, it is the Practice’s belief that expansion and development of services will provide a resilient framework upon which the growth of James Halldron Associates will be managed. Our strategy for 2014, therefore, requires our continued commitment to provide an extensive range of services for our clients in the construction industry and further its commitment in providing the best customer care throughout the full range of the Practices services.

Since 2011the Practice has seen some significant developments: in 2011 the Practice moved its Devon offices to the new premises in the centre of Torquay, where the location and close proximity to the Practices Associates in the construction industry have greatly increased its workload and client base; the opening of a new office and continued development of its client base in Manchester, the Midlands and North West projects generally, also began at the end of 2011. This latter move had been anticipated for some time by the development of client relations and the increased need for services within the North West & Midlands counties. Finally, the decision to open offices in Cambridge in March 2012, followed by the transfer to London in July 2014 together with the earlier developments outlined above, has given credence to the long term commitment of the company to develop from a regional based practice into a Nationwide operation.

Manchester Office News:

19/02/2012 Recent encouraging activity in the Manchester based operations has come with an instruction from Santander Bank to proceed with the hitherto suspended project involving the Professional Supervision of the first stage of the remedial/completion work for one of the practices existing Client’s projects in Stoke. The Principal, James Halldron, referring to the projects initial problems, commented last week that “the difficulties with the project are typical of so many developments throughout the UK during the last three years.” However, he continued, “the initial work on this 11 unit Apartment Development in Basford, Stoke, despite its difficulties, commenced last week with the inspection and issue of Contract Documents to the Bank, intended to facilitate the final construction work.”

22/09/2014 Considerable effort by the Practice and co-operation with other  Practices (Architectural - Richard Drinkwater, Planning-Ruth Jackson Planning Ltd  and Barrister Tony Gill - Kings Chambers) over the past two years  has finally resulted in a positive outcome to Public Inquiry fully resolving  the original  problems with the Stoke based project. It is now anticipated that  a Contract to modify and update the development will be overseen by the Practice over the next 6-8 months.

11/02/2012 Other recent news concerning the Practice is that two of its small Manchester based projects are nearing completion: a new house in Irlam, and extension and structural repair of one of the Practices larger Clients buildings. There also encouraging signs from several other Manchester based Clients considering new projects, previously considered unviable. More news about all of the current projects will appear on the Practices Website soon.

Torquay Office News:

22/09/2014 There has been steady flow of new commissions for the Survey and Inspection department which, hitherto, over the last 2-3 years, has been significantly affected by the problems with the housing and mortgage market. It seems that the ‘green shoots’ of recovery are present and perhaps a sign that there will now be a steady improvement in the general economy.

28/02/2012 A most interesting commission for the Torquay office has been its involvement with a new venture by one of its Clients, Phil Jones, who, with his team are developing a range of high quality timber buildings for the leisure industry as well as homes and businesses generally. Phil has been providing these bespoke products since 1998, but his new venture is to provide a range of fabric covered ‘Gazebos’ in a range of shapes and sizes through his new company “Faro”. The Practice has been delighted to have been commissioned to work on the structural design issues. We wish Phil the best with this new venture

Other Development News

22/09/2014 - The Practice recently retained the Web Designers, DesignDock,  Manchester, who have overhauled the Practices Website and have produced a mobile version of the site