National housebuilder Story Homes is beginning a major expansion and overhaul of its North East division.

The company has reaffirmed its commitment to focus on this region of business after recent land investments and a number of senior management changes across several departments.

John Armstrong recently joined the North East team as Finance Director and Nick Beckwith will join as the region's new Development Director in the spring. Both recruits bring a wealth of industry experience and shall be invaluable in helping the housebuilder to achieve its growth plans.

These new members are now starting to make strong progress with Story Homes' North East growth strategy, in a positive and successful working environment.

Allan Thompson, Managing Director for Story Homes in the North East, said: "This is a really exciting time of change for Story Homes in the North East. If we are to achieve our business goals, it is really important that we have the right people in the right roles, which is why we have recently made a number of senior appointments to support our regional plans. Our business is in a great shape and we have a dedicated team in place who are committed to helping Story Homes grow and succeed."


The housebuilder is looking to continue its expansion across the North East with the aim of increasing output to over 400 homes per annum by 2021. An aspirational growth plan will see the company build over 1,200 properties in the region over the next three years.

Following a highly competitive bidding process, Story Homes was recently selected by Sunderland City Council to develop the second phase of family-homes – 115 properties – on Potters Hill, close to Chapelgarth and Moorside. This will be the housebuilder's first development in Sunderland, with the intention to commence building works in early 2020. The developer is also working on two further sites in the city to deliver its overall plans for approximately 470 new homes in Sunderland.

Allan added: "This is the latest step in our plans for expansion and investing in our future land supply. We have an ambitious three-year growth plan which involves not only bringing forward our own strategic sites, but also actively bidding in the market as you can see with our latest success at Chapelgarth."

Story Homes is also set to deliver four new sites in 2019/20 at Callerton (Newcastle upon Tyne), Kirklevington (North Yorkshire), Finchale College (Durham) and Blackwell Grange (Darlington). These sites are set to deliver 540 new homes on land worth over £25 million.

(CM/MH)