Preston housebuilder laying the foundations to accelerate social housing delivery

A Preston-based housebuilder plans to accelerate the delivery of social homes across the North of England, as part of a £150m housebuilding programme expected to deliver 300 homes a year by 2027 and beyond.

Breck Homes is a social and supported housing developer that specialises in sourcing and purchasing both brown and greenfield sites, with ambitious plans to build new homes across the North of England.

To deliver this, Breck Homes has secured a multi-million finance package from Lloyds to acquire the brownfield sites with capacity for new homes.

The funds have been provided through a Revolving Credit Facility that Breck Homes can draw from when needed, providing the business with the flexibility to acquire sites on a short notice.

Breck Homes currently has eight active sites across the North West, ranging from 20-250 homes, in locations including Crewe, Preston and Middlewich.

This year it has delivered 170 new homes and is expecting to complete a further 67 by January 2025. Breck Homes’ target is for at least 80 per cent of homes in its portfolio to be classed as affordable.

Breck’s approach to delivering social homes involves identifying overlooked brownfield land, securing planning permission and working with a housing association and its supply chain to begin construction.

Lloyds has championed social housing for decades and has invested £18.5bn in the sector since 2018.

It currently works with over 340 housing associations and in October, it partnered with the National Wealth Fund to provide up to £500m of funding to accelerate social housing retrofits across the UK.

Andy Garnett, director at Breck Homes, said: “Since our formation four years ago, Breck has developed a strong reputation across the North West for our consistent delivery of high-quality affordable houses in response to the UK’s growing demand.

“We currently have an active development pipeline of around 1300 units which is continuing to grow and we are actively looking for sites in West Yorkshire as we expand geographically across the North of England.

"Access to fast and reliable finance will be critical as part of this growth, helping Breck to secure sites with strong development potential quickly so we can begin construction and the agreement with Lloyds is a perfect fit to support the company over the coming years.”

James Long, growth and structured finance director at Lloyds, said: “There is a clear need for more affordable housing across the UK, including the North West.

"The UK needs to pull every lever it has to accelerate the rate of housebuilding, and SMEs like Breck Homes are essential drivers of development. In particular, brownfield land must be a priority, and Andy and the team have established an exemplary approach to unearthing land for more sustainable development, with a proven track-record for building in the North West.

“Now, it’s set to expand this approach into West Yorkshire, allowing the region to benefit from its important work with local housing associations. We look forward to continuing to be by the side of Andy and his team as they work to bridge the affordable housing gap across the UK.”

Lloyds’ Growth and Structured Finance Team was created in 2022 to provide specialist debt facilities for SMEs. Earlier this year the team expanded, making two new hires over the summer to help grow its regional coverage and meet the rising demand for its services.

Lloyds Banking Group is a leading UK based financial services group providing a wide range of banking and financial services, focused on personal and commercial customers.

It is proud to be by the side of British business, supporting more than 1 million UK businesses with leading digital and relationship banking services, as they start up, grow, thrive and trade internationally.