It is offering buyers of its first 400-unit development such innovations as a choice of internal fit-out, regular external repainting of their house and the chance to manage their environment. The move is big and bold enough to spark debate in the boardrooms of homebuilding's major names - except, that is, the top ten company that came up with the idea.
After almost a century of developing mass market housing to the volume players' virtually unchanging formula, Wilcon has broken ranks to reinvent its own practice, and design and marketing director John Weir is evangelical about the paradigm shift.
"This is not Wilcon with gold plating," he says. "Doing the same thing better is not good enough. We've got to be different. In our industry never has the hierarchy of experience been worth so little and the hierarchy of imagination and knowledge worth so much." The aim of the name is to build a brand out of a product and service package comprising: environmentally sustainable sites, integrated neighbourhood design, flexible home fit-out and other added value features, improved customer care and information, and the setting up of community associations. That package has been assembled with the help of external expertise, including that of US community association law specialist Wayne Hyatt, and market research (see box). It is being introduced to the public at St James in Northampton (see box), which in advance of the opening of its on-site sales centre is being marketed from a town centre store and medium-term brand showcase for TLC.
Members of the public walking into the shop find it part retail, part exhibition, but the verdict so far is that its version of homebuying is fun. "We are getting rid of the selling environment and creating a buying environment," says Weir. Behind the friendly sales environment are changes in homebuilding process that Wilcon has been working on for more than a year.
The TLC package and how it's achieved
Responsible use of land is claimed by many homebuilders, but TLC's sustainable development approach has rigour and credibility, thanks to the application of the Wilcon Index, an environmental auditing process the company developed and now applies to all sites in its pre-acquisition appraisal process.
New homes are designed as neighbourhoods that are integrated into their surroundings rather than as enclaves or estates, in-house skills having been developed through training staff in urban design at Oxford Brookes University.
The promise of choice in home layout is the most tangible benefit for buyers. Its realisation depends on Wilson Connolly's timber frame manufacturer Prestoplan and procurement arm Buildpack.com, which packages and delivers components for every Wilcon/TLC unit. Prestoplan came up with the hybrid build form of timber frame with steel joists that gives the clear spans needed to accommodate flexible layouts, while Buildpack.com takes care of the logistics of consumer choice. "People have probably looked at Wilcon and asked why we bought Prestoplan, and why we set up Buildpack.com. We couldn't have done this without these things," says Weir.
Delivering home flexibility also means changing site practice, so each TLC site has two site managers: one managing building of the shell, the other fit-out. "There are two different disciplines on site," explains Weir. "One is to build the shells in timber frame, then there is personalising the home in a responsive manner. That will be like shopfitting." Every caring twenty-first century homebuilder is focussing on customer care and TLC's own brand of TLC includes a guaranteed completion date and the guidance of a lifebuilding services manager to help buyers source removals firms, financial and legal services and customise their new home.
But it is the community association, which lays the infrastructure for social sustainability, that is the ace in TLC's pack. Bricks and mortar come with a corporate structure that allows homeowners to raise funds in a community charge and spend them managing their environment: anything from running a cybercafe to carrying out regular external redecoration. "Our research found 75% of people wouldn't buy a new home, and that was mainly because they want certainty of neighbourhoods. We are not building houses, we're creating neighbourhoods from day one with great homes within," says Weir.
The community association is in line with Government's proposal to introduce a new form of home ownership - commonhold - alongside freehold and leasehold. "It is about empowering rather than imposing, focussing a community on things they'll do together," says US expert Wayne Hyatt. In the US schemes with associations often command a price premium. "The experience is that there is value at the end of the transaction, because the association makes sure the exterior is maintained better," he says.
Weir believes TLC's overall package is worth more. "The intention is to develop a brand that will earn a premium because of the product and the process," he says. At present TLC is a virtual company, drawing team members from Wilcon, Prestoplan and Buildpack.com, but by summer it will have its national launch and roll-out. "As this rolls out we are looking at how it affects landbuying policy and in future we will be buying TLC sites," says Weir. TLC may eclipse Wilcon and presage the demise of twentieth century homebuilding.
Going live with the new brand at St James
TLC debuts with a 400-unit apartment and townhouse scheme on a brownfield site. Community credentials are established architecturally by integrating with the Northampton street pattern in PRP Architects' design. The St James name, taken directly from the area with no marketing embellishment, is also intended to integrate, and not separate.
Homes are IT enabled, with internet access via the Home Pilot system, flexibility in the siting of telephone points, CCTV surveillance of car parking and play areas, visible on the home TV screen and more. Heating bills are guaranteed for three years.
The St James Neighbourhood Trust takes care of external maintenance, common areas and buildings insurance and operates a community website and a cybercafe which is open to the public. The site's section 106 agreement commits the social housing association partner in the mixed tenure scheme to participating in the community association.
Homebuyers have to take on board the concept of buying flexible space at St James. Buyers choose their unit, then select one of several fit-out options for it. Houses come in two fit-outs, apartments three, but whatever the option chosen the price is the same: from £87 950 for apartments and £135 950 for houses.
A 60m2 apartment is available as:
It's so different it's got to be Virgin
When market researchers showed the general public TLC's features and asked what company was most likely to be behind it, the answer was Virgin. "It is because of Virgin's message and its approach," says Richard Eagleton, brand manager with the company. Tellingly, no one thought it could have come from an existing homebuilder.
This was just one question put to 16 focus groups in the market research exercise that helped shape TLC. Buyers were asked what they thought of new homes, of the process of buying new, and of homebuilders. The answers were that new homes were boxes, buying new was stressful and buyers not looked after, and homebuilders little better than cut-and-run cowboys. "Customers told us we can do things differently," says Eagleton.
The name of The Lifebuilding Company came out of initial research undertaken by agency FCA and has also been market tested. "People don't think it is a housebuilder," says Eagleton. "They tend to associate it with a building society, with solidity and caring." The TLC name is accompanied by the marketing mantras: "make it possible, make it happen, make it special" and "first in neighbourhoods".
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Building Homes
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