A BUILDING company led by Batley-born businessman Lawrence Tomlinson is on course for a second successive year of growth.

LNT Construction, part of Leeds based LNT Group and chaired by Mr Tomlinson, builds care homes throughout the country.

Last year, it built 13 homes for LNT Group’s own Ideal Care Homes brand and other providers – having built 12 homes in 2010.

This year, it will hand over 18 homes in total to sister company Ideal Care Homes and other care home providers.

With 28 homes in the pipeline for the next two years, the company said it was optimistic it can maintain its growth and continue to buck the current gloomy trend in construction. Each home has on average 60 en-suite bedrooms.

Christine Cooper, managing director at LNT Construction, said: “Our whole operation from how we acquire sites, plan homes and build puts LNT Construction in a very strong place.

“Our design team create attractive desirable homes and we have brought the mechanical and electrical divisions in-house which gives us complete quality control as well as economies of scale.”

To further boost its offer, LNT Construction’s newest home at Newfield in Castleford, features ground source heat pumps, solar thermal panels and air source heat extraction which exceeds Government environmental standards set for 2020.

Said Ms Cooper: “We’ve future-proofed our energy systems until 2020 and speeded up the construction process by removing the need to fit radiators.

“Ideal Care Homes guarantees a customer for every project, but increasingly other providers are turning to us.

“We are gaining a national reputation for designing and building well-made functional care homes that are attractive places to live.”

Said Ms Cooper: “Last month, we signed a nine-home deal with Worcester-based Sanctuary Group, which bought five existing care homes and four development schemes.”

Ideal Care Homes, which employs more than 1,500 people, operates care homes in the North and Midlands – including Greenacres at Meltham, Ashworth Grange at Dewsbury and Lydgate Lodge in Batley