Mowlem is aiming to increase its housing output by launching a brownfield social housing division.
The business, which will be part of Mowlem’s £600m turnover building arm, will target housing association and local authority contracts. It will also hope to capitalise on private finance initiative work and refurbishment projects after the large-scale voluntary transfer of council houses.
Chris Randle, Mowlem’s managing director for the North, Scotland and the Midlands, will head the division from Mowlem’s Nottingham office.
Randle, who retains his regional post, said the growth in social housing projects since the government’s spending review was going to be enormous.
He said: “We are poised to take advantage of the huge opportunities within this market and aim to develop the housing business as a market leader within the next few years.”
Randle said Mowlem was particularly well positioned in the marketplace for such work as it had skills in the areas of training, finance, building, maintenance and life-cycle costing. He said: “We feel that all these facets in the group fit together to make great synergy.”
Randle added that, although all of Mowlem’s offices did housing work, none was big enough to bid for large social housing projects.
The division will focus on the brownfield regeneration of residential areas. It will work closely with the group’s training and project investment divisions.
Mowlem has UK housing projects worth more than £65m on its books, including a recently completed £23m development in Edinburgh and Glasgow for the Defence Housing Executive.
New-build contracts are being carried out in the North-west, the Midlands and Cornwall.
The company is also working on four PFI social housing refurbishment projects and said it was in advanced discussions with a city council for work on several thousand homes. These projects will fall into the new division’s portfolio.
