Housebuilder to open £6m offsite manufacturing facility next year

Beam Park development, Countryside and L&Q, london housing, station

Housebuilder Countryside Properties shrugged off industry worries about Brexit to turn in an improved set of numbers last year.

The firm, which in September was given planning to turn a former Ford car factory in Dagenham, Essex, into 3,000 homes (pictured), said completions were up 27% to 4,295 homes while turnover jumped 20% to £1.2bn.

Pre-tax profit in the year to September 2018 was up 22% to £181m with the firm reporting operating margins of 17.2%, up from 16.1% last time.

Countryside said a £6m off-site production factory at Warrington will open next year and will produce around 1,500 units a year for its partnerships division across the Midlands and the North West.

Chief executive Ian Sutcliffe said: “As well as significantly improving our operational efficiency, there are a number of other benefits including protection from site labour shortages, reduced waste and improved quality control.”

The new factory will take the average length of time it takes to put up a house from 14 weeks down to 10.