"Grow by building new homes in partnership with rural communities"
The current year has seen several changes as English Rural mobilises resources to deliver growth ambitions. Year-on-year completions are higher, but more importantly emerging opportunities have also increased. Investment in the development team has enabled this growth across a broader geography, which was outlined within a revised development strategy. This expansion has been supported by the new communications strategy.
English Rural has a strong brand on which to base growth, but more than ever rural communities assess the credentials of the product that we offer and expect exceptional quality.
During the year the development team reviewed the standard of homes provided, reflecting our own aspirations for an improving further the level of environmental and design achievements.
This work focussed on the principles of ‘fabric-first’ design, ultimately providing a product that is well designed and low cost for households to run.
Our ability here has also been supported through our development subsidiary ER Homes Ltd, which became more active during the year.
Activity undertaken by ER Homes Ltd now plays a more modest role in growth plans, allowing us to be more creative in our outlook and enhance our financial investment potential.
Our affordable homes in Warehorne, Kent, opened in December 2019 by HRH The Princess Royal
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Year-on-year increase in new affordable rural homes built
Refreshed development strategy and investment in staff capacity
Review of build standard and focus on ‘fabric first’ approach
Increased role for development subsidiary ER Homes Ltd
Our Regional Development Manager, Nick Hughes, escorts our Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, around our affordable homes in Bolney, Sussex.
>> Mobilising the development pipeline to achieve growth is being co-ordinated to achieve a reasonable pace. Overcoming increasingly complex challenges to advance rural development opportunities takes time and it is optimistic to expect to see numbers that reflect our business ambitions in the immediate term. Equally, balancing the level of opportunities that do emerge needs careful management to avoid future disappointment should too many potential developments emerge at the same time.
>> The increased role for ER Homes achieves the longstanding ambition to be more dynamic and innovative in our approach to growth. As ER Homes has become more active, securing improvements to the intra-group relationship and strengthening overall governance has also been necessary. For example, the frequency of meetings, increased line-of-sight at Parent Board meetings and updating the intra group agreements we have in place.
