Wales & West Housing £500 million construction partnerships

Welsh construction firms will share around £500 million of guaranteed work over the next 10 years under a pioneering project by Wales & West Housing to build 6000 affordable new homes in Wales.

For the first time in our history, we have entered into decade-long partnerships with contractors as part of our commitment to solving the housing crisis in Wales.

The new contracts, awarded to a range of small, medium and large businesses across Wales, will secure hundreds of jobs and deliver much-needed homes every year until 2028.  A further 500 new apprenticeships are also expected to be created through the lifetime of the partnering contracts.

“There is a chronic shortage of affordable housing in Wales and these new partnership agreements will help secure jobs and provide a boost to the Welsh economy”
Shayne Hembrow, Deputy Chief Executive, Wales & West Housing

Eight companies were chosen from a shortlist of 40 and have been awarded contracts to work on developments in three regions of Wales.

In South Wales, these will be P&P Builders Ltd of Blaenavon, Torfaen; Jehu Project Services Ltd of Bridgend and Hale Construction Ltd of Neath.

The selected contractors in Mid Wales are T Richard Jones Ltd of Betws, Carmarthenshire, and WB Griffiths & Son Ltd of Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.

In North Wales, partner contractors will be Brenig Construction Ltd of Mochdre, Conwy, Ewloe-based Anwyl Construction Ltd and Seddon Construction Ltd, which has a base in Shotton.

We will continue to work with a range of small and medium contractors in all regions in addition to those chosen under the new contracts.

Photo: A new Wales & West Housing development at Redwood Close, Boverton, in South Wales

Shayne Hembrow, Deputy Chief Executive of Wales & West Housing, said: “There is a chronic shortage of affordable housing in Wales and the best way for us to build more homes more efficiently than ever before is through these partnership agreements.

“We’re immensely proud of the fact that we’ve been able to guarantee such a high volume of work for so many companies over the next decade, which will help to secure jobs and provide a boost to the Welsh economy.

“Projects completed by our new partners and other contractors over the next decade will help us to contribute significantly to the Welsh Government’s house building targets.”

“We are thrilled – securing the contract is the biggest achievement in our short history”
Howard Vaughan, Group Managing Director, Brenig Construction

Steve Flay, Director of P + P Builders in Blaenavon, praised the decision by Wales & West Housing to award 10-year contracts as ‘refreshing and exciting.

He said: “We’re looking forward to building our first homes with Wales & West Housing, it would secure jobs for 20 to 30 of our directly employed staff plus many local sub-contractors, and provide training and apprenticeships for locals.”

David Harrhy, managing director of Hale Construction, added: “We are delighted to begin our new partnership with Wales & West Housing.

“We are currently building 82 affordable apartments for Wales & West Housing at Chiltern Close, Llanishen and this development has been a mutually beneficial venture for both of our companies. We look forward to working with them on many more projects in the future.”

Photo: Our new development at Tir Glas in Greenfield, Flintshire

Tom Anwyl, Construction Director, Anwyl Construction, said: “Our ethos is to forge long-term partnering relationships with our clients and we are delighted to continue our partnership with Wales & West Housing through our appointment on the 10-year development contract.

“We look forward to working with WWH to deliver significant benefits through our shared learning, skills and standardisation to deliver an ambitious development programme.”

Howard Vaughan, Group Managing Director of Brenig Construction, said: “We are thrilled to have been chosen as one of the firms to work with Wales & West Housing on a 10-year construction partnership agreements.

“Securing the contract is the biggest achievement in Brenig Construction’s short history and the impact it will have on the future of the company is very exciting. Wales & West Housing is one of the largest housing associations in Wales and we’re looking forward to working closely with them over the coming years.”

“We are excited to be given the opportunity to be part of this innovative new way of working”
Owain Jones, Director of T Richard Jones Ltd

Marc Jehu, Managing Director at Jehu Group commented; “We are excited to be part of the Wales and West partnership, the Housing Horizons strategy which was launched by CHCymru in 2017 believes we should live in a Wales where good housing is a basic for all and be are pleased to be able to contribute towards this.”

Owain Jones, Director of T Richard Jones Ltd of Betws, Carmarthenshire, said: “We are excited to be given the opportunity to be part of this innovative new way of working. To have the potential of the certainty of work for 10 years is unique. It will have a massive impact on our apprenticeship and graduate training programme.”