North West property giant is launching housebuilding division

North West property firm Peel Land and Property has announced it is launching a new housebuilding division with plans to build thousands of new homes.

Peel is one of the biggest companies in the region and its portfolio includes high profile projects such as MediaCity, Liverpool Waters and Gloucester Quays.

The company is part of a consortium looking to snap up retail landlord intu in a deal worth £2bn.

Phil Wilson has been appointed chief executive the new housebuilding division, which is set to be officially launched later this year with a new brand and management team.

Phil, who was formerly managing director of the Yorkshire based land and property regeneration company, Harworth  for seven years, is now in post and actively setting up the new division.

He is recruiting a new team and assessing potential development sites from its base in ARRIVE at MediaCityUK.

While at Harworth, Phil was instrumental in the formation of the business, overseeing its development pipeline which brought forward a number of high profile placemaking successes.

Schemes included the Waverley development in South Yorkshire which delivered 4,000 new homes and the nationally significant Advanced Manufacturing park as well as the north west’s largest industrial and logistics scheme Logistics North, in Bolton.

Prior to Harworth, Phil was part of the Peel team and contributed to the setting up of the low carbon company Peel Energy.

Preceding this, he built up 20 years’ experience within the housebuilding industry, starting out in land acquisitions and rising through the ranks to become managing director of two regional housebuilders in the North West.

He has also worked with some of the biggest names in UK housebuilding including Taylor Wimpey (Bryant), Persimmon (Ideal), and Redrow.

He said: “By launching our own housebuilding division, it’s a significant and exciting step forward in accelerating our ambition to deliver thousands of much-needed family homes across the North West of England.

“Currently Peel L&P has over 34,000 plots for family homes spanning 5,063 acres in the pipeline or on site and there is potentially a further 10,000 waiting for allocation in the planning system. The opportunity is vast.

“We have great success in achieving planning consent on our land and while we sell some of our consented land onto other housebuilders, in future it will give us the option to create developments in line with our vision. Despite our in-house status, it’s essential we build a competitive and compelling offer as Peel L&P compared to other external housebuilders.”

Phil will be joined by Jonathan England who has been appointed as development director.

Jonathan’s move to the new division follows his departure from Peel Energy where, for the past 10 years, he oversaw the delivery of Frodsham and Sheerness Windfarms, among others.

Before joining Peel, Jonathan ran his own consultancy advising housebuilders on land acquisition and construction after working for McInerney and Taylor Wimpey (Bryant) as its north west residential development director for seven years.

He said: “The priority over the coming months will be the recruitment of a construction and commercial director, as well as working with Phil to earmark a number of pioneer sites in the north west, where we will establish our typical offering, core values, design and brand.”