Winter update from Richborough Estates’ western division managing director

As I look back on 2021 and how things fared for Richborough’s West Division I can say with confidence that the team has performed extremely well in what has still been a strange year for us all.

We have delivered significant sales to our housebuilder partners, progressed key projects to key milestones such as draft or formal allocations – and have secured numerous high-quality additions to our portfolio of sites.

On both the acquisition and disposal fronts we have seen a marked improvement compared to 2020, and 2022 looks to be one of the busiest we have ever had as a division and company more generally.

Our pipeline is maturing well with sites converting to draft allocations, formal allocations and planning permissions on what seems like a weekly basis. Many of these sites are projects that we have been involved in for 5+ years which is a clear demonstration that we really do ‘stick it out’ and when necessary and take the longer strategic view for our landowner clients.

As Paul has set out in his lead piece, the land market is extremely hot in all parts of the country – which is clearly down to a simple case of a massive under-supply of allocated or consented land coming to market and a robust demand for new homes. So long as the fundamentals for the housebuilders are sustained, then I don’t see this heat cooling off for some time yet – and I expect the highly competitive bid processes that we are currently experiencing on our sales continuing throughout 2022.

However good it is to be on this ‘seller side’ of the market currently, this somewhat frenzied need for new land to convert into deliverable outlets for the housebuilders isn’t a healthy place for the industry. The planning system really does need some proper funding to planning authority departments (it’s a genuine surprise when we get a planning application with a team of communicative officers – most Local Planning Authorities don’t have any staff at all!) and a Government who actually means business when it comes to getting Councils to deliver on new Local Plans and their housing need. I won’t hold my breath though as we are here year after year with endless White Paper proposals and various think tank recommendations.

Notwithstanding the continued frustrations of the system in not allocating enough land, all in all it’s a very positive tone to end the year and we look forward to working with all our landowner, housebuilder, consultant, legal and agent partners next year.

As some of you might know…we’re a sociable bunch so please do get in touch to arrange a drink with us.

All the best and see you soon.

Jon and the Western Division team.

 

Team contact details:

Nick Jones, Regional Director (Midlands): nickj@richborough.co.uk

Jordan Gresham, Regional Director (North): jordan@richborough.co.uk

Haydn Jones, Planning Director: haydn@richborough.co.uk

Harry Jackson, Regional Manager (North): harry@richboroughetsates.co.uk

Joe Jones, Regional Manager (Midlands): joe@richborough.co.uk

Alanna Mahoney, Land & Planning Manager: alanna@richborough.co.uk

 

Sales of Ottershaw, Surrey and Bayston Hill, Shropshire

The final few months of 2021 have seen us exchange on two major sales in Surrey and Shropshire respectively.

The first was our Ottershaw, Runneymede District site for 200 homes – which we have now sold to Vistry Homes.

The site, which was formerly Green Belt, was successfully promoted by Richborough Estates through the Runnymede Local Plan and is subject to a pending outline planning application.

The level of interest and competitiveness demonstrated through the marketing process pays testament to the site’s quality as well as the outstanding skill and commitment of our team.

A special thank you to Amy Savage Mark Slater and Keith Carnegie at Vistry Group for their dynamism and professionalism in concluding the deal so quickly.

We’re looking forward to Vistry bringing this site forward to deliver a great place to live in a sustainable and sought-after location.

The second was our site in the village of Bayston Hill, Shropshire, which has been sold to Redrow Homes.

Bayston Hill is an attractive satellite village to Shrewsbury and is set to deliver c.115 homes.

Redrow were fantastic to deal with and we look forward to seeing their quality Heritage Range homes on site in the not-too-distant future.

Thanks to Andrew Morgan, Gary Crisp and Gareth Hankin of Redrow who were a pleasure to work with and as per other recent dealing with Redrow – were very swift and good to deal with.

Jordan Gresham

The start of the year brought with it a new member to the Western Division team.

Jordan joined us from Taylor Wimpey North West where he was Regional Director for their Strategic Land team.

Jordan is the Regional Director for our North region and has played a huge part in assisting in the disposal of key sites for the company – notably Ottershaw.

With Harry Jackson’s support, they are growing the North’s portfolio with some very exciting new projects such as the forthcoming planning application for c.120 homes, a new LIDL supermarket and employment land in Market Weighton, East Riding. Please contact Harry for details of this site and to arrange a catch up with the team.

Promotions

The start of 2021 not only brought a new face in Jordan but also saw two members of the Western Division promoted.

Joe Jones was promoted to Regional Manager for the Midlands – our busiest and most established region taking in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire. Joe led on the sale of Bayston Hill to Redrow and is involved in other key projects such as our forthcoming sale at Kidderminster and other key projects such as Macclesfield and Lichfield.

Alanna Mahoney was promoted to Land and Planning Manager working on the Division’s portfolio of sites stretching from Cornwall up to Northumberland. Alanna is leading on the management of our live Kilsby, Daventry site which we hope to secure planning on in the second quarter of 2022. Please contact her for more details.

New Sites added to the Portfolio

As noted at the start of this update, we continue to add quality sites to our portfolio. In the past month alone we have entered into new Promotion Agreements in Staffordshire and the Black Country and are set to exchange on several more in Cheshire, Yorkshire and Worcestershire before the end of the year.

We are still seeking new opportunities so please do contact us with any sites that you may have.