Newcastle Uniter

The merger came five years after Wimpey brought McLean into the fold under its asset swap with Tarmac and is intended to make the country's top housebuilder leaner and fitter, producing cash savings of £20m a year.

Those holy grails of efficiency and cash savings have subsequently been sought by others in the industry (see box page 27). But before the benefits comes the bloodletting: in Wimpey/McLean's case the loss of 400 jobs, closure of nine regional offices, and shutting down of Wimpey's central design, procurement and strategic land departments in favour of a more localised McLean-style approach. Logical though the merger might be, the human consequences and the McLeanisation of part of housebuilding's heritage caused consternation.

New chief executive Peter Johnson was the catalyst for these changes, but the fast-talking Geordie he promoted to md last December has been at the sharp end, and having run both Wimpey and McLean Cushen knew the people losing jobs. "It was sad for me," he says. "We did it as fast as possible so that people knew where they were." Existing teams were assessed in January; recommendations on job losses made in February.

On 2 April the new group of 21 regional businesses became formally operational, and on the same day the group assembled 160 staff for a conference at Birmingham's NEC to talk about the group's future. That future will see regions run as local businesses, with regional mds as "entrepreneurs" and local intelligence influencing everything from land buying and design to procurement and specification. Growth is planned for the southern regions and for the bespoke product and a marketing director will be appointed.

For the Wimpey brand it is business as usual, but it is a new business. "Wimpey and McLean were two different businesses with different cultures and origins. Wimpey was a national housebuilder with regional offices. McLean is a series of local business with a managed centre. Things have changed. The days of the standard housetype have gone. We have to be more aware of local needs.

"Wimpey's central design department was great when we could work with 30 standard housetypes, but we can't do that any more. With centralised procurement there is the danger that you look at cost rather than value, that you lose out on local intelligence. A local business naturally ends up with a local product." Cushen has had ample experience of both centralised and local ways of working. He started out at Wimpey, working his way from development manager in Middlesbrough to Homes md before being asked to head up McLean immediately after the asset swap in 1996.

I’ve seen what you can do by driving things locally, it may not be so fast...but you get the results.

Those who have worked with Cushen say that you can't help liking him: a remark that acknowledges both his no-nonsense manner and a boyish smile he shows no sign of losing in his fifty-second year. His rapid-fire vocal delivery gathers even more pace as he warms to his subject, especially when that subject is the opportunities being thrown up by the merger.

"We've been running the two together for four years and they have learned a lot from each other. McLean today is not the McLean of four years ago - the look of the product has changed, its optional extras service is great," he says.

McLean's decentralised management style is something Cushen is totally committed to. "The experts at running local businesses are local people. But you have to create a culture where they feel able to do that. They have to believe it so everything you do has to be open, has to be able to be challenged. We're allowing them to question us and that puts pressure on us to be able to give the answers.

"I've seen what you can do by driving things locally - it may not be so fast as you have to spend the first few months getting people within the company on board, but you get the results. It is all down to getting the management style right, so that the regions can get on with their job." Northern regional businesses are already at or around the 500 unit a year capacity of received housebuilding management wisdom. Key potential for growth in unit production is in the South and the opening of the central London office allows the group to re-apply the specialist skills acquired on complex schemes like Docklands' Britannia Village. Regional businesses are expected to increase bespoke development, which currently represents 10% of group product.

For Cushen, regional management is not only good business sense but a personal passion. He loved his own time running Wimpey's Midlands office.

"I love the intricacies involved in managing a region, in getting it right," he says. Now his job is to stand back and make sure others do too.