Stewart Milne ties up deal to boost its English footprint

● Scots housebuilder to deliver 500 new homes on back of funding agreement

Housebuilder Stewart Milne Homes has secured a multi-million-pound boost to cement its presence in the English property market.

The Aberdeen-based firm said today it had secured £11.5 million from Homes England through the Home Building Fund to allow the delivery of almost 500 new houses.

The funding will enable the Scottish housebuilder’s north-west of England operation to commence new developments in Chester, Prescot, Congelton and Hooton – helping to address a housing shortfall. The homes have a development value of some £125m.

Working in partnership with Homes England, the firm secured the loan from the new £3 billion fund which aims to increase the number of residential properties being built across the country with a target of delivering 300,000 homes per annum.

A total of 500 units, com“working prising 125 affordable homes, are planned in the new Stewart Milne developments, two of which will get underway immediately with the remainder to follow in the next two months.

Glenn Allison, chief executive of parent company Stewart Milne Group said the fund was a major step forward in addressing the country’s longterm housing challenge.

“Private, independent developers cannot make the upfront investment required to close the gap between supply and demand quickly enough,” he said.

“This funding will ensure we are able to deliver outstanding new communities for local residents and help deliver the additional housing that is required to meet the UK government’s targets.”

Stewart Milne Homes North West was established in 2006 and has doubled the number of units delivered in the region in the last 12 months. It has also increased its direct workforce from 65 to 85.

Paul Challinor, the division’s managing director, said: with Homes England we will deliver these 500 homes in the next two years. We will also seek to further increase our housebuilding through the acquisition of larger sites in prime residential locations in the north-west of England.”

Nigel Barclay, head of SME investment at Homes England, said: “Stewart Milne Homes are showing real ambition with their plans to build another 500 homes across the north-west including 125 affordable homes across a mix of tenures which will help make a real difference to local people.”

In March, Stewart Milne Group reported a return to growth after a “strong” trading performance last year.

The firm, which also runs a timber frames business, pointed to a “slight recovery” in its home market in the north-east as it said it would continue to focus on investing in new developments in central Scotland and the northwest of England.

Results for the year to the end of June revealed that the group increased turnover to £240.5m from £209.2m.