Located in the beautiful Sussex countryside is this major development of 160 new homes. V10 was instrumental in acquiring the land from a promoter then sourcing the build contractor to deliver a package deal to Optivo.

The scheme is now being comprehensively advanced with the target of creating a successful sustainable community aligning with V10’s objectives. This is the second large development delivered in the market town of Hailsham to a Registered Provider, this first being a scheme of 157 homes in the locality of Amberstone to Clarion.

Achieving social value

The scheme provides a range of two, three and four-bedroom townhouses, semi- detached and detached homes. Coupled with this there are bungalows contained within the scheme to create further variety in the housing mix. Some of the non-s106 units were delivered by Optivo as additional affordable units with an affordable rent and shared ownership tenure with Homes England grant – thus creating additional social value.

Testimonials

Both the Clarion and Optivo schemes were bought from land promoters, each of which gave their verdicts on dealing with V10 during the acquisition process;

“The crucial aspect of dealing with V10 for me is the certainty I have experienced in them performing on the terms we have agreed. They have the required expertise to understand all of the technical and planning aspects of a project and are able to work out solutions with me such that all parties are happy and the deal can be done. I will take further sites to V10 such is my confidence in them performing.” Jonathan Tomlinson, Director, Heyford Developments (Clarion scheme promoter)

“As land promoters we are well versed with the trials and tribulations of selling sites with multiple owners. On our dealings with V10, however, these problems virtually vanished with their straightforward approach and determination to resolve all issues as they arose, in an open and determined manner. It was a pleasure to deal with V10 on this site, and we hope our paths cross again soon.” Rick Bird, Director, Frederick Bird Investments Ltd (Optivo scheme promoter)

Legacy Developments

Karl Timberlake, Land & Partnerships Director at V10 Homes commented: “Working with both these land promoters was an absolute pleasure which led to us working on new opportunities after completing on both projects.

We are very pleased with the hard work our contractor partners, Jenner Construction have undertaken to advance both schemes on behalf of Clarion and Optivo. Both developments will be outstanding architecturally and in terms of the quality of the finish. They will be built legacies that both our land promoters can be proud of – being the initiators of the vision for each development”.

When recently reflecting about my formative years as a young engineer in the house building industry, I began to recall the comfort and satisfaction of being ahead of programme with multiple foundations poured and slabs being laid. Nearly 40 years have passed since first getting my boots dirty.

Never before has the construction sector faced such unpredictable challenges to hasten an unwelcome slowdown in project starts – as world and economic obstacles create a state of flux. Indeed, construction data company Glenigan has recently reported that there has been a 48% decline in project starts since last year.

Construction risk

Contractors and their customers have been hit by unprecedented levels of cost inflation. This has sent several previously viable businesses into administration or into some form of restructuring or it has weakened their financial robustness. These events have created two fronts of risk for RP’s which require addressing more thoroughly than previously, with the focus being on contractor security and the uncertainty of future cost variations – matters which V10 are resolving.

Performance bonds are not the only safeguard

To unlock projects for our clients we carefully assess the financial standing of the contracting entities we engage with. These are not normally Tier 1 operators who I am pleased to see in the press are championing SME’s to succeed and bolster their order books demonstrating a much needed togetherness which our industry calls for right now.

As performance bonds become more pricier and difficult to obtain by SME’s, we have reached out to RP’s to consider a mixture of initiatives involving part performance bond and part enhanced retention which has been received favourably. Clients do recognise they need to be flexible to get their projects moving whilst also considering the forecasted turnover of organisations on works secured. In most instances this work is with other RPs on a monthly valuation basis guaranteeing a steady and predictable cashflow throughput as security. This is easing the acceptance of contractors from RPs financial teams and long may this bigger picture thinking prevail. We have in-fact ourselves worked collaboratively with partners on a recent project to place a cash sum in escrow with the residual security being covered by a partial bond provided by the contractor.

These times demand such innovative solutions. We are glad to see other insolvency cover providers such as Advantage are now seen as viable alternative by our clients as the £5 million cash at bank criteria imposed by others is stifling to the SME world. As long as this open mindedness continues then we should see an active time ahead.

Fixing costs and fluctuating costs

We have been encouraged how contractors and RPs have tackled the ongoing problem of rising construction costs. For us we endeavour to bring our clients a fully bottomed out delivery figure for the works. To do so it is essential to brainstorm the residual risks and to commit to any outstanding assessments or design work needed to do so. Where this level of up-front information carries a high cost then we are encouraging stakeholders to respect the merits of investing in such and to collaboratively work to that end. There is much value in taking this stance. If a project is oven-ready then it allows the contractor to be able to commit to a pretty assured site start date within a given quarter with confidence.

We are also finding when good communications arise between contractors and their supply chain then some cost certainty can prevail and the importance of this is becoming key for contractors to fix their costs up-to, in some instances, 12 months, which clients are appreciative of. Beyond this point RPs and their EAs are being very pragmatic about fluctuation clauses being inserted in JCTs. If all sides contribute on the wording of such there is generally a mutually satisfactory outcome. It’s the way it has to be at present.

Collaboration

V10 has been working together with vendors, contractors, EAs and RPs who make up the stakeholders in our land sourced package deals. Our view from the trenches is to fight these challenges with sensibility and total open collaborative methods of working. We all want to side step a slow down so let’s get on the front foot and collectively kick-start and sustain the pouring of foundations throughout 2022/2023.

The views of: John Stainton. V10’s Pre-Construction & Sustainability Director

So, we now have a new Prime Minister – the first one ever to sit on a planning committee. Maybe she shares our pain too? Is this experience good or bad news for the residential development sector?

Free Markets

It’s worth stopping for a moment to consider what a free marketeer is? What is the political philosophy that will underpin the Truss Government’s policy formation and decisions? The free market was an economic idea espoused by Adam Smith in 1776 which determines that markets work best when governments leave them alone and allow the laws of self-interest, competition and supply and demand to prevail. Looking at the prospects for the sector through the prism of supply and demand let’s consider what Truss and her supporters have been saying recently.

Supply

The standout comment from her leadership campaign was in relation to her wanting to abolish “Stalinist” housing targets issued from Whitehall. Looking at the House of Commons library briefing (click here) upon first impressions is it does indeed look like a top-down edict, especially if one cares to review the spreadsheet “housing need for figures for local authorities”. However, these figures are simply based on a new method for calculating  housing need and this is intended to push more development into the urban areas. However, by giving LA’s more control over these housing targets Truss is effectively giving wannabee councils a NIMBY’s charter. The result is that we should expect less development to be allowed in the greenfield Tory shires and more in pro-development authorities.

One interesting idea is relation to brownfield sites where it has been muted that it would be quicker and easier to obtain planning permission in those type of locations. Indeed, the concept of brownfield sites being “full-fat freeports” with tax incentives for development has been floated by her supporters. Will greenfield land be taxed more and developers of brownfield land be rewarded for the extra effort? It would make sense for the industry to have its own financial self-interest reorientated towards more brownfield development and make more of the brownfield opportunities available on each LA’s registers (click here). In this context if planning red tape and regulation can be cut all the better. This will spur supply.

Demand

Truss has also made the point that younger people are struggling to get on to the property ladder. She has talked about delivering more affordable homes on brownfield sites. She is a believer in home ownership and would therefore be a natural advocate for shared or discounted home ownership where outright ownership is not possible. You can see the dots being joined up with the supply ideas.

She has also pointed out that 50% of renters can afford a mortgage but due to the mortgage rules only 8% ever get a mortgage – so homeownership is being held back. Easing the availability of credit will unleash further demand from first time buyers thus creating the property-owning democracy craved by the right.

New Opportunities

Politically, Truss needs to curb what locals perceive as ‘over-development’ in their constituencies – hence the abolition of ‘Stalinist’ targets – a nod to the real politics of the 2021 Chesham and Amersham by-election result. Meanwhile she wants the free market to create homes for the young to own – thus enlarging the natural conservative constituency (as Thatcher did with the right to buy council houses)

Whatever new policy decisions are made it is clear the housebuilding industry and the housing association sector will need to re-orientate yet again to take advantage of the new opportunities – once the 10^th incumbent in the last 15 years is appointed to the position of Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Comments above by

Karl Timberlake

Director – V10 Homes

Nestled in the rolling Sussex countryside is ‘Ambersley Green’ and its adjoining housing parcel ‘Linnet Place’ – a development of 157 new homes across two phases. V10 were instrumental in acquiring both tranches of land and sourcing a select build contractor for Clarion and its private development business, Latimer. The scheme is now comprehensively advanced with many residencies occupied, creating a successful sustainable community aligning with V10’s objectives.

Achieving social value

The scheme provides a range of two, three and four-bedroom townhouses, semi- detached and detached homes. Coupled with this there are also apartments and bungalows contained within the scheme to create further variety in the housing mix. Some of the non-s106 units were delivered by Clarion as additional affordable units with an affordable rent and shared ownership tenure with Homes England grant – thus creating additional social value.

Historic Hailsham town

Hailsham is an area mentioned in the Domesday Book. It was granted market town status in 1252 by Henry III and is seven miles north of Eastbourne. In recent years Hailsham has grown significantly with many new developments attracting new homeowners to the area from greater Sussex and London seeking value for money.

Thoughtfully considered design

Karl Timberlake, Land Director at V10 Homes commented: “Working in development is mostly about plans and figures especially in the evolving pre-construction phases prior to acquisition. Given this scenario, this was a typical textbook deal for V10 to procure. In this regard we worked with a highly professional land promoter, his agent and legal team, Clarion’s new business team, ECE Architecture and Jenner Construction in true collaborative unison. Together we identified the issues and problems and calmly sought the most cost-effective solutions. It was perfect teamwork in motion to achieve a very successful outcome.

“One of the things I remember mostly about this scheme when it was on the drawing board was in deliberating and deciding the appropriate housing mix, layout and tenures to meet local needs of the area. We wanted to get it just right to cover a broad demographic and cater for a range of occupiers from all walks of life. John Stainton, V10’s Pre-Construction Director and I enjoyed spending many hours with a plan, spreadsheet and some coloured pencils creating the vision which has now been realised in built form today. We were especially conscious of delivering homes for those people who we knew needed an affordable home in the area.

“Fast forward to the present day situation and our drone images show a fantastic development that everyone collectively involved can be proud of. What the aerial footage doesn’t show is the joy and happiness of the occupiers of these well-designed homes – some of whom greeted me when I was filming the scheme with the V10 drone. Knowing that around 500 people now have a home gives me intense professional and personal satisfaction – especially as some of them wouldn’t have had one here in the Sussex countryside without V10’s efforts. A reward worth the toil!”

Hometrack, which supplies V10 with its market valuation data, released its UK House Price Index and commentary today and claims that the pace of house price rises is expected to drop 40% by the end of 2022.

House Prices

It is predicting that Y-O-Y house price inflation will slow from its current 8.3% to 5% by the end of this year – that’s a 40% drop in the pace of increase. In March house price inflation was running at 9.3% so the peak in Y-O-Y increases seems to have passed which reflects not only general supply and demand trends in the market but affordability in local markets.

Demand Drops

The report also highlighted that demand in April was 58% above the previous April in 2021. However, that peak has clearly passed as Hometrack are now reporting buyer demand to be only 25% above the same period in June 2021 – representing a 57% drop in the pace of demand increases Y-O-Y. Nevertheless, overall demand is up compared to 2021.

Supply Surges

Meanwhile the supply of homes to the market has increased Y-O-Y from 3% last month to 5% this month – up 67%. However, the number of available properties to buy is still 29% less than it was at the same point this time last year. Overall supply is down compared to 2021.

The impact of affordability on house price inflation

Hometrack commented “ This analysis demonstrates that while the direction of house price growth is dictated by the balance of demand and available supply, the pace of price changes is dictated by housing affordability. The Zoopla house price index shows that the fastest price gains continue to be seen in the most affordable housing markets while unaffordable markets lag behind as affordability pressures price out growing numbers of households and limit the potential for price gains.”

So, for example Wigan has seen an 11.8% increase Y-O-Y but central London only a 1.7% rise.

The London Experience

The London market arguably peaked a couple of years ago with rampant house price inflation as demand and sales surged. Anecdotally this has cooled in the last 18 months as prices reached their peak and demand slowed due to affordability. The same effect is likely to occur in other areas outside of London which are likely to slow even faster due to increasing mortgage rates and household cost factors. London has entered a period of market stability whereas outside of London V10 expects local markets to show strong house price inflation before flatlining during 2023.

The Hometrack report comments:

“Our analysis suggests 4% is a key level for mortgage rates and one beyond which we would expect to see zero annual house price growth.”

Earlier this week V10 was exclusively approached by a landowner to collaborate on a new project. This would be our third deal with them. But why did they come back?

The Holy Grail of Repeat Business

Any business school will teach its students the importance of achieving repeat business with its clients and partners. Why? Repeat customers will do more business with you, they are easier to deal with, they will promote your business and this means the business needs to use less effort to find new customers. Customer and partner retention is a key benchmark by which any business should measure itself. So, having been approached again to collaborate on a new project this week we reviewed our repeat business credentials and found that 78% of all our projects were agreed with partners on more than one occasion. So, what do our customers, suppliers and partners think of V10?

Testimonials

Most people these days will review a product or service by casting an eye over that company’s latest Google reviews after an internet search. The problem is V10 doesn’t have any! However, we do have professional testimonials and have a full page on our website dedicated to this – link here. Some of the extracted comments are below:

• The crucial aspect of dealing with V10 for me is the certainty I have experienced in them performing on the terms we have agreed
• As land promoters we are well versed with the trials and tribulations of selling sites with multiple owners. On our dealings with V10, however, these problems virtually vanished
• V10 have expertise in unlocking sites with high abnormal costs and finding innovative solutions to sites with problems in the ground
• They are professional, responsive, experienced, and trustworthy
• We have always the V10 team to be straight talking, professional and friendly with a tenacity to get the deal done.

V10’s Approach

At the heart of all of V10’s business dealings there are some key principles with corresponding actions that the team adheres to. Karl Timberlake, Land & Operations Director explains.

“Trust is the key principle. Trust that what we say is true. Trust that what we say we’ll do, we’ll do. Trust in that we know what is important to a land seller or contractor or registered provider and that we’ll always seek to find a win-win solution. We value medium and long terms relationships over short term commercial expediency. We adhere strongly to the three C’s; collaboration, communication and credibility. Clearly actioning these principles has ensured that V10 has achieved repeat business – which is the key to our success. This will hopefully lead to another phone call inviting us into the next deal next week!”

At the very moment V10 is releasing this news post, the main news is that the UK is experiencing the most extreme weather ever and temperatures have just exceeded 40 degrees for the first time.

The planet is sending humanity a message. That message is clear; reduce greenhouse gas emissions or face even more extreme weather events and its devastating consequences.

Net zero

The path to net-zero is a colossal single species endeavour that many of the world’s population are embarked upon. Every industry sector is addressing it. Every company or organisation is assessing its policies, its products and its services – each with the intention of contributing to net zero and adopting a more sustainable approach. V10 is no exception.

Sustainability benchmarks

To ensure that our future developments are increasingly sustainable, V10 has devised its own ‘sustainability benchmarks’ which are based on three pillars; environmental, social and economic, with each pillar having 10x specific measurements. Each of our developments will attract a % sustainability rating and we have applied this test to all our currently live projects to create our starting point.

Sustainability pledges

Having rated our live developments, V10’s management team considered where the company and team could make a further contribution to improving the sustainability ratings of our future developments. There were many options but the team decided to adopt three pledges:

1. Increase the use of MMC in our supply chain
2. Increase the delivery of net bio-diversity
3. Increase the delivery of affordable homes above s106 requirements

Karl Timberlake, V10’s Land and Operations Director commented

“We introduced our sustainability benchmarks to enable us to measure and strive for better sustainable outputs in the future. It has made us conscious of where we can deliver positive change by focusing day in, day out on our three pledges.

Heatwaves, drought, famine, migration, woodland fires and extreme weather are all coming down the line faster than we would want. So V10 will do it’s best to play a part in arresting this trend with its re-focussed efforts”

In June, we made our annual trip to Manchester for the CIH conference. For me, it meant a short burst up the M56 in the car from home rather than the weekly 6:03am from Crewe into London.

I like the CIH at Manchester. It’s a chance to reconnect with our Northern roots, check out the changing face of the city (and its latest watering holes), as well as the chance to mix with those RPs and contractors located outside of London with wider regional programmes.

It was a reminder that those organisations are committed as ever with significant appetite to deliver affordable housing in what are challenging times for the sector. With a backdrop of increasing build costs, competition for land and dissipating supply, it also reaffirms the importance of land-led development to many RPs to assist with that delivery.

Indeed, of the 1,055 units currently live/on site being delivered through V10, over 700 are outside of London.

Unlocking the land

As a company we have always been fortunate to have an ongoing supply of land, formed through longstanding relationships with landowners, promoters and developers.

That said, in these times of a restricted number of consents coming through the planning system, V10 successfully acquired a site ‘on market’ in late November last year with Stonewater for 87 units in Huntingdonshire for a 100% affordable scheme. This is a path we continue to be successful with, competing in the market partnering with RP’s to acquire sites for development.

There is over 60 years of collective expertise in buying land and delivering a fully designed scheme tailored to specific requirements in the team!

Like all development companies, land remains the lifeblood of our business and we continue to invest great time, energy and resource into identifying potential land opportunities that are suitable for delivery into the affordable housing sector.

Build Cost & Viability

We work with some great contracting partners, who are established in the sector with whom we have forged close relationships with over time. This has never been so important to us as a business.

With cost inflation being experienced by all in the sector, we work hard with our contractors to understand the sites that we assess and put forward, identifying the key risk items and identifying their solutions at an early stage of engagement with an RP.

Working transparently to demonstrate the best route to tackle ground conditions and abnormal costs, the effect of planning and section 106 to programme and getting the site delivered.

We undertake extensive sales research with data and the qualitative research from local agents and housebuilders to assess the market dynamics local to the scheme, and the affect that might have on the absorption of different tenures.

By doing all of this we aim to assist our RP to assess the site quickly and enable us to move swiftly on schemes that have potential.

You can’t beat Face to Face

As I noted from one senior RP development director, the importance of meeting friends and colleagues was perfectly demonstrated at this year’s CIH conference.

“Zoom and Teams have their new place in our lives but sharing a story and a smile (maybe a coffee or something stronger) in person cannot be replaced.”

That is how relationships are formed, and through collaboration and partnering, they will continue to be the key to enabling the delivery of much needed affordable housing in these uncertain times.

If you would like to find out more about V10 and how we partner with housing associations to deliver land and build package deals, please get in touch.

Written by Simon Kight, Acquisitions and Partnerships Director, V10 Homes

Here our guest writer, Richard Dean of Arbtech tells us more……

What is BNG?

Biodiversity Net Gain has been introduced to ensure that the biodiversity of an area is improved following the completion of land development projects. Our biodiversity net gain consultants will ensure that as much of a site’s flora and fauna as possible will be preserved, however, in some circumstances, proposals will mean a loss to the environment and an alternative location may be required to allocate the required biodiversity net gain units to.

Has BNG become law?

Although the Environment Act 2021 is a part of UK law, its policies – with mandatory biodiversity net gain included – aren’t expected to be fully integrated until the year 2023 as it goes through a two-year transition period. Many local planning authorities, however, are already enforcing the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in line with detailed guidance from DEFRA and Natural England and are applying a 10% biodiversity net gain requirement on each new development proposal in preparation for it becoming the norm.

With a growing number of local planning authorities stipulating biodiversity net gain as a general condition of granting planning consent, it’s advisable to consider the requirement early as part of the pre-development preparations.

Is BNG bad news for developers?

While it’s understandable that land developers, architects, planners and other relevant professionals might see this emphasis on environmental protection as yet another hurdle to jump in the pursuit of planning consent, it’s better to view the mandatory requirement as an investment.

Nature has been in decline for decades: a report from 2019 claimed that 41% of UK species have decreased and, shockingly, the abundance of the UK’s priority species has declined by as much as 60% since 1970. It is therefore imperative that property developers play their part in helping to improve the UK’s biodiversity.

BNG metrics and measurement

Under the new legislation, you will need to submit information and receive approval for what is known as a ‘biodiversity net gain plan’ (or sometimes simply referred to as a ‘net gain plan‘). Once the Environment Act 2021 becomes more frequently adhered to as part of law, you will need a net gain plan to secure planning permission for your development. At this point, it is important to stress that this is non-negotiable – no plan, no planning permission.

It may come as a relief to know that the process of measuring biodiversity net gain will not be an arbitrary decision made by your local planning officer. Instead, it will be measured in the same way nationally, using the DEFRA biodiversity metric 3.1 – a tool specifically designed to measure biodiversity gains or losses.

Can biodiversity units be delivered off-site if they cannot be accommodated on-site?

Ideally, your local planning authority will expect you to provide the biodiversity net gain on-site, however, in some circumstances this simply will not be possible. In these cases, the local authority will look closely at your plans and may still grant consent if you can deliver sufficient biodiversity net gain off-site, ideally locally to the application site.

How to protect your businesses pipeline of future projects

1. Engage the services of a suitably qualified biodiversity net gain consultant early in the planning process.
2. Consider all opportunities for retaining as much existing biodiversity on site as possible and seek ways of improving this where feasible.
3. If you are unable to provide the required number of biodiversity units on site, you will need to either negotiate a financial contribution to the local authority or provide the units on nearby land.
4. If your business has assets with no development potential, consider creating biodiversity units to ‘bank’ and satisfy future needs. This forward planning will help protect your development pipeline and potentially avoid costly planning refusals.

Why Arbtech?

When it comes to something as important as achieving planning approval, it’s crucial that you have biodiversity net gain advice and guidance from genuine experts that offer good practice on ecology matters and understand other issues such as existing legal implications. Every single one of our ecologists is licenced and educated to Bachelor’s or Master’s level. They know their stuff, possessing a wealth of expertise about local and national ecological networks to guide effective environmental management, based on the corresponding local planning authority’s criteria.

Arbtech have national coverage and can also provide you with a full range of ecology and arboriculture services, meaning we are a one-stop consultancy and take complete ownership so you can get planning permission, fast. We typically provide over 4,000 surveys annually and have 55+ staff across the UK.

If you would like us to quote on your next project, then contact Richard Dean on [email protected] or take a look at our website www.arbtech.co.uk

We recently unveiled an updated brand identity at V10 which has also coincided with the launch of our new website.

Our brand colours have undergone a subtle evolution to better reflect where we are now as a purposeful business and where we’re heading on our sustainability journey.

As a company embracing modern methods of construction and new ways of thinking on carbon reduction, biodiversity and social value, we recently introduced our own set of sustainability benchmarks for our development projects.

Our new website also showcases our latest projects and our unique approach to working with registered providers, landowners and construction partners.

“It’s important to us that people know exactly what we’re about and the values we represent,” comments Karl Timberlake, land and operations director at V10.

“We wanted to make it easier for our clients and partners to understand our offering and our collective passion for creating sustainable homes that strengthen communities and change lives.

“The changes in our brand identity reflect not only how our business has evolved in recent years but also the investment we are making to become an exemplar business in sustainable housing development.”

Our news and views section is the place to go for all the latest going on at V10 and you can also sign up for our newsletter to stay updated.