Urban & Civic to acquire L&Q Estates from London &
Quadrant Housing Trust
London & Quadrant Housing Trust
("L&Q") has today announced that the unconditional sale of
L&Q Estates to Urban & Civic will complete
shortly.
L&Q Estates, a wholly owned
subsidiary of L&Q, is a strategic land business which promotes
sites through the planning process, from pre-allocation stage to
securing implementable planning consents before delivering serviced
land to the marketplace.
Urban & Civic, a leading Master
Developer in the UK, was identified by L&Q as a logical
purchaser to deliver L&Q Estate's focus on boosting housing
output across South East England and into the Midlands. The
acquisition will see Urban & Civic expand its portfolio into
Milton Keynes, a key target geography, whilst also widening its
commitment to strategic interventions in high growth locations.
Catesby Estates, the land promoting subsidiary of Urban & Civic
will also benefit substantially from expansion
into new target areas and strengthen market competition by
progressing those sites which are made directly available to
housebuilders once consent is secured.
L&Q is one of the UK's leading
housing associations, owning and managing more than 105,000
homes. L&Q Estates, previously
Gallagher Estates, was purchased by L&Q in 2017 to unlock land
for housing development on a regional basis and since then
thousands of new homes have been delivered across the Midlands and
South East. However, L&Q's corporate strategy is now focused on
prioritising investment into existing homes and services and
targeting growth in London and Greater Manchester.
Waqar Ahmed, Executive Group Director of Finance at L&Q
said: "We are pleased to have
reached this agreement with Urban & Civic. We're immensely
proud that since acquiring L&Q Estates in 2017, we've enabled
the delivery of over 11,300 new homes, of which 1,800 have been
built by L&Q. However, our long-term strategy is focused on
ensuring that every L&Q resident has a safe and decent home,
and access to high quality services they can rely on. This deal
will help us meet this goal by simplifying our business and
generating additional revenue which will be reinvested into our
existing homes and services.
"L&Q remains committed to
building the affordable homes the country so desperately needs, but
this deal signals a longer-term ambition to concentrate future
growth in our core areas of Greater London and Greater Manchester,
rather than pursue strategic land opportunities across the wider
South and Midlands. This will allow us to focus our resources on
areas where housing need is the greatest, and where we are in the
strongest position to provide responsive, local services that offer
the best value for residents."
Nigel Hugill, Urban & Civic's Chief Executive,
explained: "We were delighted to be
afforded the opportunity to acquire L&Q Estates, a business
that we have admired since the inception of Urban & Civic and
with which we are fully familiar. The purchase presents a singular
opportunity to integrate complementary projects and expertise,
whilst also expanding our portfolio into key target geographies,
most notably Milton Keynes.
"It is simply infeasible to meet
adequate housing targets in South East England without a greater
contribution from strategic sites. The acquisition
promises a step change for Urban & Civic and Catesby
Estates as the new Government looks
at immediate means by which housing numbers can be lifted.
Collectively, the enlarged group has gathered a lot of learnings to
create best practice in amenity and landscape led master
development. I expect this knowledge and experience to prove
invaluable in the changed political environment. We can also help
inject new competition into the housebuilding process by
encouraging the participation of an otherwise apparently inexorably
reducing number of SMEs across a broader range of projects.
Seeing is believing but the acquisition will
enable us to push harder again on new, amenity led, strategic
housing development."
For further information, please
contact:
investors@lqgroup.org.uk
Mike Nuttall, Head of
Communications
0161 968 0538
www.lqgroup.org.uk
END
