Urban Splash grows Land Acquisition team with four new hires
Having appointed land director Katie Dean in spring 2019, award winning Urban Splash has further strengthened its land acquisition team with four new hires – including a new head of planning. The news takes the company’s total headcount to 210 colleagues, a number which has risen from 90 staff two years ago; recruitment has been propelled by Urban Splash’s acquisition of its modular construction factory in 2018, and its deal with Sekisui House and Homes England in 2019.
The latest appointments to the land team will be tasked with sourcing and acquiring new sites – allowing Urban Splash to deliver more of its House by Urban Splash homes – all of which are created using modern methods of construction.
With new sites already secured in Cambridgeshire, Cumbria and the Wirral, the team has appointed Birmingham-born Andrew Johnston as head of planning. Having worked in planning and development for 15 years, Andrew’s former roles include director at Avison Young in Manchester as well as roles with Haines in Auckland, New Zealand and DTZ in Birmingham. Speaking of his appointment he said: “I am delighted to be joining Urban Splash’s growing land team, helping to streamline planning on House projects and take our innovative approach to housing to even more neighbourhoods across the country.”
Joining Andrew are Richard Dingle as acquisitions manager, Sam Thomas as bid manager and Laurence Chipperton as acquisitions surveyor. Richard joins from the PJ Livesey Group, while Sam brings over seven years of industry experience including roles at Morson International and Omni, with Laurence joining from Adlington part of the Cheshire-based Gladman Group.
Speaking about her ambitious curation of the land team since joining Urban Splash, Katie said: “We have huge plans for our growth this year and, with so many House by Urban Splash sites now established and coming to fruition in places like Manchester, North Shields, Birmingham and the Wirral, we’re looking to take it to all corners of the country.
“Fusing more than 25 years of regeneration and design experience, the highest design standards, placemaking skills and modern methods of construction are setting us apart as we bid for new sites – our new colleagues are a great asset to us in achieving our ambitious plans for growth, and we are looking to continue building our team this year. It’s a really exciting time for us.”
The hires mean Urban Splash has welcomed more than 40 new colleagues to its business this past year, all of whom are helping the company in its national pursuit to create neighbourhoods, workspaces and innovative, architect-designed homes using modern methods of construction across the country.
The company continues to recruit and current vacancies can be viewed here: https://ec2-63-34-210-119.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com/careers
