Taylor Wimpey - Land & Planning Director

Taylor Wimpey - Land & Planning Director

Land and Planning Director Oxfordshire Candidate Information Pack

Contents

Introduction • Welcome • History • Culture & Values

Company Info • Business overview • Where we operate • 2018 overview • Strategy

Role Profile • Job Description • Why consider this role?

Process & Timelines

Land and Planning Director

Introduction

Dear applicant, Thank you for taking the opportunity to consider applying for the role of Land and Planning Director at Taylor Wimpey Oxfordshire.

Taylor Wimpey is a FTSE 100 business and one of the largest residential developers in the UK, building new homes and communities across England, Scotland and Wales. Our people are passionate about the house building industry and about our customers. Culturally we pride ourselves in having a diverse work force with an opportunity to grow a career in a variety of environments. We look to develop our people in the skills and areas they are most interested in so if you are looking to join a thriving company going through an exciting period then please get in touch. Our vision is to become the UK’s leading residential developer for creating value and delivering quality. We build over 10,000 homes each year, from one-bedroom apartments to six-bedroom houses all across the country. We are looking for an experienced Land and Planning Director to successfully manage the Land Team, bringing their experience to the regional Board. This is a pivotal appointment and will play a significant role in the future growth of the region.

Land and Planning Director

Introduction

In 2007 George Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow merged to form Taylor Wimpey. We are proud of the home building and construction heritage of both companies, which dates back more than 100 years.

We are one of the largest homebuilders in the UK, operating from 24 regional offices across England, Scotland and Wales, and we aim to be the developer of choice for customers, employees, communities and shareholders. We build a wide range of properties, from one- and two-bedroom apartments to six bedroom detached houses, with a broad price range including both private and affordable homes. We are truly national and we cover most regions across the UK. Our regional businesses are run as local homebuilders and have in depth knowledge and experience of the local market. We understand that development is about more than creating homes and we provide millions of pounds

worth of infrastructure, for example roads, sewers, landscaping and community facilities, every year across the UK. We aim to develop vibrant communities with a true sense of place that fit into their surrounding area and meet the needs of local people. We are a responsible community developer, committed to working with local people, community groups and local authorities and keeping them informed about our work, both before we build and throughout the life of the development. We focus on getting the basics of homebuilding right first time, such as quality, customer service and health and safety, and we aim to continually improve all parts of our business.

Land and Planning Director

Introduction

Core values and cultural principles These are the Taylor Wimpey values that will help us achieve our vision and mission, and the cultural principals that underpin them: Be respectful, fair and deliver together - Communicate well and collaborate - Encourage and embrace diversity - Set clear professional standards - Develop good relations and behave with integrity Continuosly improve and innovate - Be future-focused and drive change - Find solutions and dont accept second best - Make informed decisions - Be well planned and organised Build a proud legacy - Never compromise on safety - Be passionate about customers - Delievr right first time and keep promises - Commit to a sustainable future

Land and Planning Director

Introduction

Our Cultural Principles outlined below are the values that underpin everything that we do: • If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly; • If we make a mistake, we put it right; • We are competitive and don’t accept second best;

• We will not compromise in ensuring that everyone leaves our sites safe and well; • We behave with integrity, are honest and forthright and support each other; • We strive to enhance the environment and local community and to run our business in a way that is sustainable. • Knowledge and information are key, we take our decisions on fact not emotion. • We value individuals from diverse backgrounds and aim to develop potential to the mutual benefit of the individual and the business. We strive to treat our employees fairly and with respect, and to provide a safe place for them to work. Our UK Employee Handbook sets out our approach to our employees as well as the standard of behaviour that we expect of them. We believe that by embracing diversity we will be able to succeed through a workforce that is inclusive, creative and innovative. We support the United Nations’ Universal Declaration on Human Rights and have policies and processes in place to ensure that we act in accordance with our values in relation to areas such as equal opportunities, anti-corruption and whistleblowing. We encourage employees and sub-contractors to speak up about concerns over wrongdoing at work and we provide access to an independent reporting hotline service. Taylor Wimpey operates in diverse communities. During 2012, we undertook a review of the diversity of our employees and will map this against catchment areas to determine any discrepancies. Our new recruitment practices are designed to help us develop an increasingly diverse workforce.

Land and Planning Director

Company Information

Taylor Wimpey plc is a UK-focused residential developer which also has operations in Spain. We aim to be the developer of choice for our customers, employees, communities and shareholders. We are experts in land acquisition, home and community design, urban regeneration and the development of supporting infrastructure which improves our customers’ quality of life and adds value to the homes that we build. We build a wide range of homes in the UK, from apartments to six-bedroom houses with prices ranging from under £100k to over £3m. We completed 14,387 new homes in 2017, excluding joint ventures. In addition, we build affordable housing across the UK, which represented c.19% of our 2017 completions. We aim to deliver aspirational homes for our customers that are ef cient to build.

Where we Operate

Land and Planning Director

Company Information 2018

Pete Redfern, Chief Executive, commented: “We have continued to see good demand for new housing through early 2018. Looking ahead, as we embark on the next stage of our strategy, our focus is on building our capability to deliver great quality homes and places for our customers over the long term.” UK current trading The underlying housing market has remained stable in the first four months of 2018, with continued good accessibility to mortgages at competitive rates. During the first few weeks of March, the poor weather conditions had a noticeable impact on sales and build rates but activity has since recovered. Solid consumer demand continues to drive a healthy sales rate against a very strong comparator. Average private sales for the year to date were 0.85 per outlet per week (2017 equivalent period: 0.93) in line with our expectations. Cancellation rates remained low at 13% (2017 equivalent period: 10%). As at 22 April 2018, our total order book value stood at approximately £2,155 million (2017 week 16: £2,210 million). This represents 9,050 homes (2017 week 16: 9,219 homes), excluding legal completions to date. Land portfolio, planning and outlets The short term land market remains stable with opportunities to acquire land at investment operating profit margins similar to those achieved in recent years. At the end of March 2018, our short term landbank stood at c. 77k plots. We continue to widely engage and work together with local authorities and communities to secure planning permission for our strategic pipeline sites. Our strategic land pipeline stood at c.118k potential plots, as at the end of March 2018, following conversion of over 2k plots into the short term landbank. We remain focused on progressing our sites through the planning system to enable us to open all sites with implementable planning as efficiently as possible. We are currently operating from 278 outlets, excluding joint ventures (2017 week 16: 289). Outlook Trading through the spring selling season has been good and customer demand for housing continues to be strong, with good access to mortgages, low interest rates and healthy employment prospects. We remain on track to meet our expectations for the year, but expect completions for 2018 to be more second half weighted than 2017. Build cost inflation is anticipated to be at similar levels to 2017, at around 3-4%, as previously indicated. We expect to end the year with a net cash position broadly similar to year end 2017, and after the payment of £500 million dividends, subject to approval, to shareholders. Our priority is to build further improvements in product quality, customer service, and delivery capability to enable us to deliver great quality homes to more customers over the years ahead. We will be hosting a Capital Markets Day on 15 May 2018, where we will update the market on our views of the housing market and our plans for continuous business improvement and shareholder returns.

Land and Planning Director

Company Information

DEFINING OUR STRATEGY Our strategy set out in 2011 has been focused on driving sustainable value through the housing cycle and delivering enhanced margins and returns, whilst continuing to invest in the future profitability and quality of the business for all stakeholders. We believe that financial results must be achieved in the right way and as a responsible business we acknowledge both our obligations to the communities we operate in and the opportunity to work with our stakeholders to create value together.

Land and Planning Director

The next five years to 2023

Pete Redfern, Chief Executive, commented: “The changes we are announcing today to our operations will develop and be implemented over time, but are very significant - we aim to deliver increased growth, higher dividends and an increase in our return on capital by working our existing land assets harder and smarter. We have always said that running the business in the right way for the long term was more important than short term financial performance. We continue to believe this and the changes to the way we see our customers and the way we see the business long term are much more fundamental: putting our customers’ needs and desires at the heart of our business, which will ultimately make us a more valuable, sustainable business for all of our stakeholders.”

Highlights - A refocused business purpose based on identifying and responding to our customers’ needs, focused on improved products, places, simplification of the buying process and affordable access to the homes that we build - Increased opportunity for long term sustainable growth, through increased landbank efficiency, as we work our existing and future assets harder - Further strengthening and investing in our people and skills, including investment in direct labour, supply chain development and research and development to underpin growth and delivery - A continued high-quality, strong balance sheet, main- taining our cyclically cautious approach - An enhanced ordinary dividend, based on current outperformance, improved asset efficiency and confidence in long term growth

Land and Planning Director

New goals for the next five years to 2023

New goals for the next five years to 2023: - Increase of return on net operating assets to 35% - Maintaining operating profit margins at c.21-22%

- Operating cash conversion of between 70 and 100% of operating profit into operating cash flow - Increased landbank efficiency - reducing length of short term owned and controlled landbank

years by c.1 year to 4-4.5 years Enhanced dividend announced

- Enhanced ordinary dividend driven by current performance and increased confidence in our ability to deliver future growth: increasing to approximately 7.5% of Group net assets up from 5%, and equating to at least £250 million per annum (subject to shareholder approval each year), up from at least £150 million per annum - 2019 special dividend announced of £350 million (subject to shareholder approval), taking 2019 total dividends to c.£600 million (an increase of 20%). Based on our current five-year expectations, and in current market conditions, we expect special dividend payments to remain comparable to the 2018 and 2019 payments

Land and Planning Director

Job Description

Land and Planning Director Land & Planning

Date Finalised/Last Reviewed: April 2018 Location: Abingdon, Oxfordshire

Position Title: Function: Reports to:

Managing Director Direct Reports: Planning team, Land buyer, Land manager

Job summary/purpose: • To develop, implement and manage the risk to the Region’s land acquisition strategy, ensuring that the budget requirements of the Company are met. • To build and develop ongoing strong relationships at all levels with key individuals and groups of interested parties in the land acquisition and planning process e.g. Council Chief Executives, Directors of Planning & Regeneration, Local Communities, Ward Members, Local Objectors etc. • Provide and monitor land market activity on a continuing basis and react to opportunities. Be a proactive member of the local management team and successfully manage staff involved in the land acquisition and planning process. • Understand and respect the principles and strategic objectives of the Taylor Wimpey Business Strategy and ensure all team members (new and existing) are fully aware of its contents. Primary responsibilities: • Develop and implement the land acquisition strategy through the identification, acquisition, monitoring and delivery of sustainable opportunities, negotiating contracts to achieve the most favourable terms and conditions. • Co-ordinate and manage the planning application process working with key individuals both internally and externally to ensure successful delivery. • Ensure value improvement through smart land acquisition, outstanding management of the planning process and cost efficiency. • Build a network of strong relationships with key contacts within the geographical area to monitor land and market activity ensuring that Taylor Wimpey becomes the partner of choice for any new land opportunities. • As part of the Board of Management, have a clear understanding of other departments’ roles and responsibilities. Input into the development of the local business strategy to ensure future development and growth. • Recruit, retain and develop a strong land, planning and technical team. Undertake regular performance reviews, develop individuals’ skills and knowledge and manage any areas of concern in line with Company procedures. • Management of the land and development budget. • Any other duties as requested by the Managing Director. • Attend all modules of the Community Led Planning self-awareness programme.

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Job Description

Key business relationships: Internal: Managing Director, Board of Management, Commercial and Sales Teams, Strategic Land, Solicitor External: Chief Executives, Planning Directors and Officers, Members of the community – Ward, members/Local Objectors/ Supporters, Land Agents, Vendors, Architects, Solicitors, Press, NHBC. What are the measures of success for the position?

• Acquisition of suitable land on favourable terms, in line with the business strategy. • Successful planning applications, delivered on time, and driving best value. • Development of strong relationships with key contacts both internal and external. • Building a strong and high performing Land & Planning team. Experience, Qualifications, Technical Requirements, Education Relevant experience gained as a Senior Manager or Director of a house building business. Detailed knowledge of the land acquisition process, relevant legislation, geographical area of business and its key contacts e.g. Agents, Vendors, Planners.

Required/Preferred

Required Required Required Required

Basic knowledge of technical issues.

The role involves travel which requires a full driving licence.

Key Competencies: Set clear professional standards Develop relations and act waith integrity Find solutions and don’t accept second best Be future focused and drive change

Leading the Business Leading the Business Leading the Business Leading the Business Leading the Business

Make informed decisions

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Job Description

Why consider this role? The Oxfordshire region of Taylor Wimpey will produce c700 units this year, with a remit to expand to 900 in the short term. This is an outstanding opportunity for an experienced land and planning professional to devise and implement a land acquisition strategy to deliver that growth, with backing for significant land investment to underpin their strategy. The Land Department is made up of a Land Manager and a Land Buyer, whilst on the Planning side there is a Senior Planning Manager and a Planner, and we need a strong leader to provide focus, guidance, and discipline to get a capable team back on track. Ideally, we are looking for someone who is strong in both disciplines, but will consider someone who has a pure land focus and a strong network of contacts throughout the local area. With a drive and determination to succeed, the ideal candidate will have a proven track record at Director level, adding their experience to a relatively new Regional board team. We are looking for someone with strong people skills, comfortable with coercing and leading, but also mentoring, helping and supporting individuals. Taylor Wimpey are a company that passionately believes in developing their people, always promoting from within wherever possible. With a large number of regional offices, opportunities abound and for the career minded individual success in this position will not go unrecognised. From the very top of the business, there is a genuinely adhered to culture of ‘doing the right thing’ whether that is with staff, customers, contractors, or anyone else they might deal with. It is a key tenant of the business and it is therefore imperative that the Land & Planning Director fits this cultural mould. This position represents an incredible opportunity to reignite a stalled land and planning team. With backing to succeed in an ambitious land remit, you will lead your team to buy land and achieve planning on sites that will have a major impact of the future growth and development of the regional business. The post offers a salary level which will ensure Taylor Wimpey are able to attract industry leading professionals. In addition to basic salary Taylor Wimpey offer a generous benefits package which includes: • Generous Pension Scheme • Up to 75% bonus • Long Term Incentive Plan reward scheme • Share Save Scheme • Health Cover

Land and Planning Director

Process & Timelines

APPLICATION PROCESS For a confidential conversation please contact Taylor Wimpey’s appointed recruitment partner Nick Frost at the Management Recruitment Group. Applications should consist of a CV and short covering letter outlining key matching experience and rational for applying for the post. Nick Frost T: 0161 638 0936 M: 07792 676270 E: [email protected] The closing date for applications is Sunday 1st July. Initial interviews are due to take place during the first week of July, with final interviews scheduled for week commencing 9th July.

Land and Planning Director

www.mrgpeople.co.uk