We speak to Hugo Reeve, land & development director and co-founder of BRiCS Development, about his career in the housebuilding industry, and what the industry needs to do over the coming months and years.
How did you get started working in property development?
I approached Berkeley Homes directly for a graduate placement – even back in the mid-90s they looked like the most successful developer who built high-quality houses. Fortunately for me, they didn’t have the sophisticated graduate interview process they and others have now, and my degree in architecture meant they could hire someone cheap to check plans. I was also hugely lucky with some great and rather maverick mentors in their land department, who convinced me I was a natural land buyer (when probably I was far from it), and who made the land process fun and exciting. It was a baptism by fire, especially presenting plans to Tony Pidgley, but I learnt more in my first six months there than the three years of university before – a fair advert for the apprenticeship route.
Tell us about your current role?
I am currently the land & development director, and co-founder, of BRiCS Development – a growing SME housebuilder specialising in delivering ‘place-made’ communities with a broader mix of tenures than is usually found. Some national housebuilders have stepped further away from their previous place-making expertise and more bespoke products, so BRiCS aims to fill that gap. My role as an SME director is hugely varied, part developer, and part owner involved in all aspects to grow a business.
What do you love about working in property?
I love the constant opportunity to be creative with something that actually gets built, especially whole new places. The myriad of financial, technical, and risk constraints are challenging and the creativity has to bend to work within them, but it’s a puzzle that is massively rewarding when you crack it on each project, and then get to walk around it.
What are some of the biggest challenges facing SMEs in the market at present?
There are quite a few! Most are well known, such as access to competitive finance and material buying rates, and convincing everyone from landowners to purchasers you are credible when you are not a known name.
But currently perhaps the biggest challenge for an SME is the time and process others take to get decisions we need to move forward. From banks, landowners, planning authorities, and warrantee providers, to name but a few, their process and decision time can risk killing an SME’s market timing and cashflow. We need them to be as nimble as we are.
What would you change about the industry?
Two things. Firstly, the current system of processing planning applications and clearing conditions is just broken and massively under-resourced, leading to delays that are already creating huge long-term problems. A lack of consented homes will deepen the housing crisis much further and warp the market, with only a handful of national plc’s that can afford the cashflow for such delays. One change could be a new and separate more autonomous officer team (who could part outsource to external planning consultants?) to deal with detailed reserved matters applications and planning conditions, with less local political influence once the major decisions have been made at Local Plan policy and outline stages. This is how the process should work, but doesn’t, due to lack of resource and too much local political influence in the detail. This new tier would need major funding, yes, but planning officers urgently need the resource, and developers may even contribute if it leads to a vital faster process.
Secondly, more land being made available specifically for SMEs, especially from large public sector landowners, focused on longer term community value and place, rather than just shorter term cash. This doesn’t necessarily mean a lower land payment either. For example, a deferred land payment model can help SMEs secure cheaper project finance and return that saving to land value, and with less capital locked-up it allows the SME to take greater risks with design innovation to add real value. The landowner who invests in this for the medium-term can see a higher overall return if the deal is well structured. BRiCS have one such model now operational with the MOD, but it should be more actively encouraged at DLUHC and Homes England level across other public sector owners.
What can SMEs bring to the table that larger operators can’t?
A more locally bespoke product, variety, and innovation. Smaller businesses are just more nimble and can focus more on the design quality and innovation of a smaller number of projects, when compared to national housebuilders working on so many projects of scale. I have done both. Both are valid and the market needs both to reduce the housing crisis, hence why SMEs need more support before being eclipsed by that ‘handful of nationals.’
What would your advice be to young people considering joining the industry?
You don’t necessarily need a degree to get on a good career path. Unless you are fixed on a particular professional discipline, apprenticeships will give you an early head start and a fascinating insight to the many roles and talents needed to make the ‘whole wheel roll’. Whatever your talent, you will find a place for it, and then you can move between roles and can become multi-disciplined. That makes you valuable, and no day is the same job.
That, and come and create future communities – what can be more exciting and rewarding than that?
