Builder on lookout for land after loss

HOUSEBUILDER Stewart Milne, which last month posted its first-ever full-year loss, is aiming to bulk up the scale of its operations with the creation of a strategic land division.

It will focus on medium to long-term land planning and will be headed up by newly appointed managing director Steve Loomes.

He was previously land director for Stewart Milne's northern homes division, and has spent the past five years working on site planning and land acquisitions across Scotland's North-east.

Glenn Allison, group managing director at Stewart Milne, said the new division was a positive step forward for the privately owned company.

Like its counterparts across the sector, Stewart Milne has struggled amid dire conditions in the housing market. In its latest set of accounts for the year to 30 June, the Aberdeen-based group posted a pre-tax loss of 27 million on turnover, which fell by a third to 276m.

"This is about scale," Allison said. "We are doing it to ensure we can deliver land in the places we are looking to be in sufficient quantities."

Strategic land is generally regarded as that which has not been designated for residential development, but which has potential to be re-zoned for housing. It generally costs a fraction of that designated for residential development.