Platform pipeline shows promise within challenging built environment

Platform Housing Group have been ranked 8th in the sector’s annual report on the Biggest Builders for their pipeline statistics for the coming year. 

We reported 1,338 homes in the pipeline for 2023/2024 and more importantly have secured all the relevant sites ahead of a busy year in our development programme. 

Group Chief Executive Elizabeth Froude said, 

“As always we are pleased to see ourselves in the top 10 for several categories and hope to remain there in future years. As a group we remain committed to building much needed new affordable homes and also to improving the quality and energy efficiency of those delivered as well. 

I believe our strong and consistent pipeline symbolises this, especially given the current difficult environment. 

To give greater certainty to quality and delivery, we have over the past couple of years moved more of our programme into a land-led channel and it’s great to see this is now starting to deliver a reliable pipeline going forward.“ 

The survey also records how many starts on site that developers achieved in the previous year. Platform maintained their spot in the Top 10 with work already started on 1,304 homes. 

Executive Director of Growth and Development Gerraint Oakley commented, 

“I’m delighted that we’ve maintained a strong profile in the development world whilst we remain active in the land market. The report is indicative of the fact we are finding ways to deliver homes for our customers, whether through buying land, developing sites with our partners, or buying stock from volume house builders. It’s great to be back at over 1,300 starts, and looking further ahead we are pushing towards 1,600. The sector has overcome many challenges to date, and will need to again in the next 12 months but we must keep building and we will keep building.” 

“We are here to provide people with the foundations in life that come with great quality, affordable homes...and to solve the housing crisis. Due to the tenures we offer, there will continue to be demand and we want to work with local small and medium sized enterprises who would benefit from our strong pipeline.” 

Our Regeneration department will play a big part in the coming year’s work. We recruited a larger team before Homes England’s announcement that it would focus more on supporting Housing Association’s regeneration projects. Mr Oakley added, 

“We know the regeneration process can work despite the difficult processes required around making a site work. We knew it would be a big strategic priority for housing associations with ageing stock. The high density, inner city sites are the ones that could be targeted but are challenging and can take time to come to fruition. With Homes England’s help it’s going to be really good opportunity for us to provide more people with the peace of mind of a great quality home.