For SME Building Companies the recent announcement from The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to launch a programme to pilot bringing forward small publicly owned sites is very good news. This will not only increase the availability of new and genuinely affordable homes but it will also be a boost for London’s small homebuilders sector.

In the last 10 years, the number of small builders who deliver less than 100 homes has declined by 50% as London’s home building is dominated by a small number of large developers. This pilot will ensure that small plots of publicly-owned land will become more accessible to small and medium-sized homebuilders in London.

Mr Khan, said: “For far too long, London’s housing market has been over-reliant on large developers building the majority of our homes on large brownfield sites. The number of small sites coming forward has halved in the last decade, and we have lost almost a third of all small and medium-sized homebuilders operating in the capital”.

Affordable Housing

To kickstart this initiative, Transport for London (TfL) have been directed to bring forward 10 of its small sites for development. Each site has the capacity for 2-42 homes and the land will be made accessible by a bidding process.

Mr Khan went on to say, “I also want to provide more opportunities for Community Land Trusts, which is why I have earmarked two sites specifically for community-led housing.”

These two sites, one near Shadwell DLR in Tower Hamlets and the other in Christchurch Road Lambeth, will be dedicated solely to community-led housing groups offering 100% affordable housing. With 10 plots being released, 111 homes will be built and 68% of these will be affordable and will go towards the Mayor’s target for 50% affordable housing across its portfolio on sites brought forward since he took office in May 2016.

Discussions have also begun with other public sector landowners. There will be a review of the process for bringing forward the 10 TfL pilot sites to establish how and when the programme can be used by other public land owners in London.

Unlocking the potential of SME Housebuilders

Barry Mortimer, Director of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) London, said: “If we are to build the 66,000 new homes each year in London we need to unlock the potential of small and medium sized (SME) house builders.”

He went on to say “We therefore welcome this move by the Mayor of London, which will help bring forward a small number of small sites across the capital and give SME builders the land they are crying out for. This is a step in the right direction but if we are to address London’s housing shortage, we need many more of these initiatives going forward.”

BRAC Contracts are very encouraged by this initiative. Having completed hundreds of successful projects in our portfolio, from small scale fit-out, renovation plus design and build properties to large scale government funded projects we will be keeping a close eye on this pilot.