Helen Moore appointed Greencore Homes chair
Greencore Homes has chosen Helen Moore as its chair. Moore joins the sustainable housebuilder’s board with more than 35 years’ experience in the housebuilding sector. She held senior roles at large housebuilders Countryside and Crest Nicholson and was managing director of SME City & Country for more than nine years. She moved onto Orbit Homes, the development arm of Orbit Group, as managing director before becoming group director.
Berkeley pauses buying land
Berkeley Group is suspending buying new land and reducing work in progress investment in response to “geopolitical events” and escalating taxes and costs. In a strategy update ahead of reporting its full year results for the year ending April 30 2026, Berkeley said that its concerns, reflected in its recent trading update, that the Middle East conflict could reduce confidence in “a near-term market recovery” had “now become a reality”.
National Housing Bank launches
Homes England has launched the National Housing Bank, with the government agency announcing the first investment of a £100 million partnership with Aviva. The National Housing Bank is open for business alongside the publication of a new Investment Prospectus, setting out Homes England’s full range of funding and support. The Bank will work with developers, investors and registered providers, deploying up to £16 billion of debt, equity and guarantees to aid the delivery of more than 500,000 homes and “a raft of” major regeneration and mixed-use schemes.
Scotland heading for a “housing catastrophe”
Scotland is heading for a housing catastrophe according to Homes for Scotland (HFS), the body representing housebuilders in the country. The stark claim is in response to the latest Scottish Government housing statistics published today (March 31) which show continued declines in all-tenure housing starts and completions.
FHH launches Water Smart Growth Board
The Future Homes Hub has launched a Water Smart Growth Board (WSGB) to focus on better, more integrated water management to support the delivery of sustainable housing growth. The Hub’s new board will build on the work of Enabling Water Smart Communities (EWSC), a four-year Ofwat project, and addresses water as an increasing area of concern, recognising the need for collaborative solutions on water scarcity, infrastructure capacity challenges and climate‑related pressures.
Crest sees sales rate improvement
Crest Nicholson has reported a “sustainable improvement” in its sales rate since mid-January after seeing “weak” trading conditions in the second half of 2025. In a trading update, Crest said that during the ten-week period to March 20, Crest’s open market sales rate - excluding bulk - was 0.64 against the 0.61 of FY 2025. Guidance for its full year remains unchanged.
Bellway’s completions ahead of guidance
Bellway expects to build more homes than it originally anticipated during its current financial year, but it has also warned of an inflation risk from the Middle East conflict. Announcing its half year results, with completions rising 2.7% to 4,702 homes against H1 2025, the housebuilder said that it expected, in its full year ending July 31 2026, to be ahead of its previous guidance of completions between 9,300 and 9,500 homes, compared to the 8,749 of the previous year.
Housing secretary issues industry “call to arms” at HBF Policy Conference
Housing secretary Steve Reed has issued a "call to arms" for the industry to work with the government to "build, baby, build". Speaking at the Home Builders Federation's Policy Conference in London, Reed gave an overview of the measures the government had taken to lay the ground for the delivery of 1.5 million new homes, including planning reform, the Social and Affordable Homes Programme, financing through the new National Housing Bank and moves to simplify the buying process.
