Wates & Lovell

Wates and Lovell are both national firms, involved in housing refurbishment, new house building and partnership, including social housing schemes.

Through the partnership with Whitefriars Housing Group Ltd they have been involved in training initiatives, community schemes, schools’ projects and local businesses

On transfer, Whitefriars promised an ambitious programme to deliver £240m of improvements to its homes over 5 years.

To meet the challenges of moving from an annual capital programme of £6m to £38m, Whitefriars had to address some fundamental issues, including the sheer scale of the project, cost management and labour.

Whitefriars’ approach was to develop a strategic partnering concept, based on a 5-year agreement with guaranteed profit, open book accounting and shared supply chain management.

The main partners appointed under this contact, Wates and Lovell have concentrated with Whitefriars over the course of the partnership to maximise efficiency. The success of this approach is such that the kitchen and bathroom replacement programme is on schedule to finish a year early

Howard Farrand, Chief Executive of Whitefriars Housing Group comments on the benefits of partnership working, “I don’t believe that a £240 million spend spread over 19,000 properties in five years could be delivered effectively by any other approach. Traditional ways of working just wouldn’t be appropriate nor would they have the same social impact.”

• For more information on their activities visit www.wates.co.uk and www.lovell.co.uk