Croudace’s new chief executive Adrian Watts, who started in June 2023, has said that he wants to grow turnover from its current £200m to £500m by 2033.
He also wants to spread the business from its southeast origins and into the Midlands.
Founded in 1946 by Jack Brotherton-Ratcliffe, Croudace Homes’ first sites were in Surrey during the post-war building boom, before expanding across southeast England in the 1980s. Today, the housebuilder has three regional operations: in Caterham, Letchworth and the recently opened Theale.
As part of the growth plans, a Midlands office is set to open over the next few years.
Before joining Croudace in 2019, Adian Watts had held director positions with Bellway, Redrow and Persimmon. He initially joined as managing director of Croudace Homes’ North Thames region before being promoted to deputy chief executive in 2022 and getting the top job four months ago.
“I’m excited to share our growth strategy, which will increase our development portfolio from 600 homes per year to around 1,200 across all regions,” he said. “Historically, the business has always looked five years ahead, but as we are targeting ambitious figures, it felt prudent to deliver a longer-term plan. We are pivoting our operations in a number of ways, such as increasing our long-term strategic land, investing in sustainable construction methods, and expanding our development patch across the entire south of England, and eventually beginning to head north to the Midlands.
“A change of government has reinvigorated the housing market, particularly for SMEs such as ourselves. The proposed measures to the industry, in particular a reform of planning regulations, will reduce time-intensive and frankly expensive applications and instead incentivise developers to press on and deliver great quality homes.”
Caspar Brotherton, non-executive group chairman and grandson of Croudace Homes’ founder, said: “We are ready to take the next step and set far-reaching targets to deliver growth over the next decade. We are confident that Adrian and the board of directors will successfully lead us through this exciting period of expansion whilst retaining our core company values for prioritising the wellbeing of our staff and building high quality sustainable homes backed up with a first-class customer service.”
Croudace Homes currently has more than a dozen live developments, ranging from larger sites such as the 830-home Hermitage Park on the edge of ancient woodland in Maidstone, and a 600-home mixed-use scheme at Willowbrook Park in Didcot, to more boutique developments such as Wisteria Gate in Romsey, Southampton.
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