Kerr and the Acre Properties business are renowned locally for their unusual five-point recruitment plan. This involves prospective candidates known to Acre employees coming in for an open day’s experience, followed by a seven to 14-day break and then a second trial day. A decision is then made by both parties on whether to proceed and hire. 

This method has resulted in 64 per cent of staff having 100 per cent attendance records, and 55 per cent having remained with the company for more than ten years.

Between 2000 and 2008, Kerr moved the company away from taking on solely private individuals to also working with DSS and housing association tenants, which proved successful until the lending criteria began to be relaxed. In 2006, Kerr and the business were alerted to “sub-prime lending” and started to decline facilities from Northern Rock. 

In April 2008, Kerr wrote to two broadsheets concerning the base rate, warning that it had to drop or property prices would fall sharply. The company also let its borrowing float above the base rate in lieu of accepting fixed-rate loans. Six months after the global financial crash which saw Northern Rock collapse, the rate fell from five to 0.5 per cent. The drop saw the business transformed, and lenders consequently began reviewing their stance on their general lending structures and the economy at large.