Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Living Space Housing has had a pretty good few years. Liam Turner caught up with its new managing director, Paul Breen, to find out how he plans to build on the young business’s recent success
Now you’re the managing director of Living Space Housing, in what direction do you want to take the business?
The direction of the business remains the same as it always has been. We want to be the affordable housing provider of choice, and we still see that as our market. That’s the way the business was originally perceived to be, and that’s where we want to be.
You’re picking up where Steve Davies, the former MD left off, is that fair to say?
Undoubtedly. The ethos hasn’t changed, we want to be the partner of choice, with an emphasis on high quality, and emphasis on repeat business, and work closely with registered providers (RPs).
We want to go through the journey with them, to find the land, develop the relationship with the RP, and take it through the planning process, because we often believe having the RP presence through the planning process has a major impact and a major benefit to both sides.
What do you want to achieve during your tenure?
The big one for me is growth as a business. We’ve been going circa three years now, and we probably started at the right time…We’ve grasped solid foundations by way of getting a good reputation, getting a good reputation with RPs, a good reputation for quality. So, we had those foundations, and now we’re at the next phase for Living Space, where we really want to grow.
We’ve set out a very ambitious business plan, where we’re going to more than triple the number of units that we’re looking to do next year and years four and five of our journey.
Are you confident in hitting these growth targets?
The business plan is always the business plan. But we’ve certainly got a very good start. We’ve already probably secured nine or 10 of the sites that we’re targeting, of the 20 that we want to start within the next two years. We’re also talking to solicitors and landlords over real ‘hot prospects’, as we like to call them. We’ve just done a 500-year secured for that two-year business plan. So from that point of view, we’re well on the way.
What do you attribute to your success during the pandemic?
We started back on site in April [2020], so when all of the housebuilders were very much off site, the sites that we could start on, we did. We were one of the really early ones, and that was what set us in for the rest of that year.
The benefit we have is that, because we’re a partnerships business, the properties were there for us to build – we didn’t have that sales uncertainty like a lot to the other businesses were concerned about. So from our point of view, it was all about working safely, working with supply chains, and getting materials. If we can do those things, there was nothing stopping us building.
Do you think you are in a strong position compared with others in the industry?
I think we’re still in a strong position. COVID is still having its daily challenges – particularly around supplies, materials, and the supply chain. I spoke to one of our guys this morning, and out of 15 operatives they have on site, he’s got either 13 with COVID or self-isolating.
“We’ve set out a very ambitious business plan, where we’re going to more than triple the number of units that we’re looking to do”
However, what I would says is, we’re getting a lot of collaboration with our registered providers and with our partners that we work with. They are understanding of the issues we’ve got, and it is about trying to work collaboratively to get the best end results.
Would you say partnership working has been another reason for your success?
Most definitely. It is something that we really want to go to the next stage on and do more partnering, to look at that with the housing remit as well, because ultimately we need that repeat business. We need to show these guys that we can build a very good product to very high quality and that we’re good to work for.
A large part of what you do is delivering homes for registered providers. Is that set to continue?
Completely, that is the core focus of the business, certainly for the next 12-18 months. That’s in the business plan, that’s what we’re striving to do, that’s what we’re putting all our efforts into.
We’re also flexible enough so that, if an opportunity arose and it’s of interest to us as a business – whether it’s a small permitted development scheme or a private rented sector scheme – we would consider it. But the day-to-day stuff of what we want to get involved with and what the business is going to generate and drive forward on is that RP work.
To what extent does sustainability feature in the planning of your new developments?
It’s very high – almost top of the agenda. Again, we’re certain of our key partners. We’re looking to remove the gas element from sites. We’ve got several sites coming up at the moment where we could have mains gas, but we worked with our RP providers to say, actually, let’s not go down that route, let’s not put mains gas on there, let’s look at an air-source heat pump solution, put some PV on if necessary, car chargers… I think that’s quite a bold step from everyone.
What kind of sustainability measures are you implementing internally?
We’ve got our ESG statements, and we’re looking at what we can do as a business, how we can cut down on our waste on site. So, we’re going through that, and we’re doing really good work on that point.
The other thing is working with our key supply chains, so, looking at waste, looking at packaging. I know it’s been done before, but we’re doing it again. We’ve introduced a key member of staff on the procurement side who has come in to look at those elements and see what we can do and see if there is any betterment we can achieve at site level and office level.
Read more on Living Space Housing:
- Living Space Housing submits plans for largest scheme to date
- Living Space Housing secures Nuneaton site for up to 35 affordable homes
- Living Space secures site on outskirts of Worcester to deliver affordable homes
What do you see as the main challenges for Living Space in the future?
The challenge for Living Space will always be the issue of finding land. It’s the same with any business…Planning is still a massive challenge for us and the industry, too. We now work on worst-case planning scenarios with regards to dates. But we’re still finding those difficult to achieve, and finding those elements of land that we can unlock from the planning stages is a real challenge. COVID, again, that is just day-to-day challenges. Materials…Brexit, labour shortages, resource shortages…
Do you see these supply chain issues continuing this year?
I think they will continue. We believe they have probably reached a point where they will get no worse, but we’re still understanding that we may have to maintain these levels for a duration.
“Planning is still a massive challenge – we work on worst-case scenarios with regards to dates”
What we’re having to do is identify key supply chain members in certain instances or go to the wider market. I know that’s a contradiction in terms, but sometimes we have to go to the wider market to ensure we get deliveries and be an important part of their business in order to satisfy ours.
The worst-case timescale that you mentioned – when do you see that changing?
I don’t see that changing any time soon, to be honest. That is local government and that’s above and beyond our control, unfortunately.
Twenty-six weeks is pretty much the norm on a straightforward application [at the moment]. It should be 13 weeks. But this article I read was saying something like 80% of schemes are still approved within that 13 weeks. I don’t know of any, even our most straightforward sites. It puts a lag. Everything that we’re talking about, it’s in that funnel of going from acquisition to then the design stage and planning – it takes so much longer to get onto site.
How do you perceive the health of the wider housebuilding industry?
I think generally it’s very buoyant, it really is. There’s some really good opportunities out there for everybody. It has its challenges as we’ve discussed, but the opportunities out there are there to be had. It’s now a case of the rest of the world settling down, getting the planning procedures in place, and allowing us to actually build.
As soon as we start on site, we get enquiries which should go to the RPs who are desperate for these homes. It’s amazing what we get through social media. It’s all the time, and they’re coming to us to see if we can help them get up the list with whichever RP is in their local area. There’s a lot of people out there needing better homes.
What trends do you see emerging over the next year or so?
As a business and as a group of companies, we’re looking at MMC (modern methods of construction). What we’ve found is, with the pandemic – the lack of materials, the supply chain issues – we are seriously looking at alternative solutions, more panellised systems.
Because that way, although it is an increased cost, that increased cost allows us some certainty. It allows us some certainty on delivery, it allows us some certainty on the programme, and we’re not so beholden to materials cost increases, lack of labour, to getting things done.
How do you view the MMC sector currently, and where do you see it going in the years ahead?
Although it’s going massively ahead, the problem we’ve got at the moment is it’s much more expensive than traditional. However, because traditional is struggling from materials, supplies, and labour, those costs are narrowing now, and I think with repetition and the larger housebuilders understanding how these systems work, some of those efficiencies will start to level the see-saw.
If they can deliver a certain amount of their stock with a panellised MMC system, for instance, it would give them massive certainty in particular areas. And that has massive value.
Main image: Paul Breen, managing director, Living Space Housing
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