Andrew Brook wanted a company that specialised solely in the conservation and restoration of historic buildings and monuments. To implement this, the company was built under strict conservation philosophies and parameters. All staff, from founder to apprentices, are properly trained and qualified, from post-graduate and professional qualifications to NVQ's.

The company vision is to have a sustainable and self perpetuating system of producing properly qualified craftsmen, largely through on the job training, and in doing so, to set standards of unsurpassed quality resulting ultimately in happy people and healthy, historic structures.

We at HBC believe that work to ‘national monuments’ should demand a quantifiable level of training, and that this criteria should be paramount in contractor selection; dispensing with the ridiculous practices associated with traditional methods of procurement, which are invariably price rather than quality driven. In the founder's own words in the IHBC Members Yearbook (2001), “the survival of the cheapest is a devastating game to play with Conservation”.

HBC prefers to negotiate contracts and has special mechanisms in place to project manage and control costs against allocated budgets. This generally alleviates our private clients from needing external project supervision, quantity surveying and other professional services often associated with outdated methods of procurement.

The company carries out contracts, normally as the Consultant Main Contractor, and values vary from in excess of £1,000,000 down to Minor Works of as little as £1,000. Geographically, whilst most contracts are in the Midlands, HBC works in all areas of the British Isles and has demonstrated competitiveness, to that end.

Giving buildings of the past, a future, whatever their designation, remains the founding principle on which HBC will continue to develop and flourish.