North East property, housebuilding and mining firm the Banks Group is looking forward to a bright future after reaching its 50th anniversary.
The family-owned firm was founded as HJ Banks & Co in Tow Law in 1976 by Harry Banks OBE DL, who is still chairman and chief executive, and has always retained its headquarters in County Durham.
A special programme of events and activities has been devised to help mark its golden anniversary, with a company history project also being undertaken.
Banks began life as a surface coal mining business, with the Edward Pit at Tow Law being its first surface coal mine, and it went on to successfully develop, operate and restore more than 115 surface coal mining sites through the following 46 years.
The Group began to diversify in the 1980s, with successful new businesses in transport, property, landfill and plant maintenance all being added to the group which is thought to have been unique in using revenues from mining operations to set up and grow a substantial renewable energy business, Banks Renewables.
After the ending of UK coal mining in 2020, Banks Mining turned its hand to the mining of gypsum for use in construction.
After generating more than three million MWh of renewable electricity from its portfolio of onshore wind farms over almost 20 years, Banks Renewables was sold to the world’s largest dedicated transition investor, Brookfield Asset Management, in 2023.
In the same year, Banks established its own housebuilding division, Banks Homes, which is now developing a growing portfolio of high-quality residential developments across the North East and Yorkshire, where the company opened its Harewood office in 2020.
As part of its longstanding ‘Development with Care’ approach to its work, Banks has also awarded grants totalling more than £7.5m to more than 1,300 community groups, voluntary organisations and environmental projects, with further significant community investment now in the pipeline.
Harry Banks OBE DL says: “The company’s history is one of continuing innovation and evolution, and of investing in both emerging commercial opportunities and the people who are turning them into successful divisions of our business.
“This process is continuing with the launch and rapid development of our Banks Homes business, which is now becoming established as a successful regional housebuilder and is well set to deliver substantial numbers of high quality homes across the region for many years to come.
“Our Development with Care approach has always been fundamental to the way we have worked right through our history and continues to set the standard for how tangible, long-term benefits can be delivered to the communities in which we’re active.
“We’re immensely proud of our County Durham and North East heritage, which has been the foundation on which our growth, diversification and success has been based, and to be celebrating it through our fiftieth year.”