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experience and quality in the team, putting in more equity as needed, as the fi rm grew. fter approimately a year, i secured its fi rst ‘serious’ development site, for 77 homes, which then took a further year to go through the design and planning process. Reeve said for a start-up SME to make the jump to a larger scheme so quickly demonstrated the capacity of the fi rm which is now bearing fruit.


PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE It has been challenging journey to get the business on a fi rm footing, says eeve, given the partly unforeseen external pressures, but the staff’s experience in the sector, plus a good external contact base helped see it through the rough headwinds of the early couple of years. The exodus of many planning offi cers during and post- Covid (with many not having to return to offi ce posts since, and lack of local authority resources from cost pressures, has resulted in a “collapse” of the system, says Reeve.


He believes that the Government’s plans to recruit another 300 planners, although the right approach, is unlikely to plug the current yawning gaps. Reeve explains: “It’s very small in the scheme of things. It’s not just planning offi cers that are needed,


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but ounty offi cers too.


e says that budget cuts and staffi ng at local authorities have been so severe that the time taken just to process applications make the process “almost unviable as an SME.” This means a shortage of land with planning permission; “any land that does come on to the market with some form of permission is fi ercely fought over. Delays in bringing in necessary infrastructure are another obstacle which has seen BRiCS having to grit their teeth to see margins come to a sustainable point. Reeve says that “a big discussion needs to be had with regards to the relationship between section 106 and the Common Infrastructure Levy, because a lot of it still comes down to the negotiation and discretion with the local authority, a lot of whom are very short of fi nance.


He backs the mandatory local housing targets with the new Labour Government announced as a policy soon after taking offi ce. t’s desperately needed, but will take time to come through the local planning processes, to change the course of the ship to the extent that land availability and housing delivery frees up.” lso eeve welcomes the new ‘grey belt’ plans, but says that there is ambiguity as to what will and won’t be deemed ‘grey.’


n fi nancing, he admits that despite the investors’ valuable trust in the fi rm, the rigmarole of bank fi nancing has been the real challenge, despite the “availability and appetite” being there. “Taking it through the legal process with the bank’s solicitors has been very torturous, expensive and time-consuming.” He believes there’s an erroneous expectation in the sector that all loans should be “completely risk free, when development isn’t.”


PERFORMANCE ANXIETY? Builders face more scrutiny than ever before on the performance of new build homes, given the drive to net zero, and the incoming Future Homes Standard which is designed to create ‘net ero ready’ homes as the grid continues to decarbonise. But what are the realities of doing this on the ground for a new SME housebuilder such as BRiCS? Reeve says that his fi rm has already embraced changes, with one scheme being fully electric, but they see sustainability in housebuilding as a wider issue than simply how well a building performs and the technology installed. “It’s as much about lifestyle, access to amenities, open space and creating a more sustainable community in itself,”


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