Thakeham: House building done right works for everyone 

We build sustainable resilient communities, equipped with the best quality homes, infrastructure and public services.  

Established in 2003, Thakeham is now one of the leading developers in Southern England. Today, the company has the highest possible resident satisfaction score from the Home Builders Federation and was featured in The Sunday Times’ ‘Best places to work guide’ 2023.  

House building is undergoing a fundamental shift as the sector wakes up to the growing need to actively improve neighbourhoods and reduce emissions. We’ve always believed that any homes we build need to be anchored and enriched by great community spaces, such as locally owned cafes and village greens. We’re also a founding member of the Future Homes Hub, an organisation established to drive sustainable innovation and change in the house building sector.  

While in the past it was difficult to build state-of-the-art sustainable homes, innovation is making the process simpler, allowing our industry to build green and build well. There should be no resistance from the property sector to the green agenda and incoming policies. Whether it’s major listed house builders or local SMEs, the skills, technology and materials needed to build low carbon beautiful homes are increasingly available for all.  

In 2021, Thakeham became the UK’s first housebuilder on the SME Climate Hub to join the United Nations’ ‘Race to Zero’ campaign and commit to all new homes being net zero by 2025. 

Net zero homes produce no carbon emissions from heating, cooling and lighting by using a combination of air source heat pumps and solar panels. Alongside reducing emissions, these measures benefit residents by making the homes much cheaper to operate.  

Beyond emissions, due to recent legislation is it now mandatory for all new developments to include a 10 percent increase in biodiversity net gain. Creating beautiful green communities that allow people and nature to thrive side-by-side is fundamentally the right thing to do, that’s why for years the majority of Thakeham schemes have included 10 to 20 percent increases in biodiversity.  

The housing crisis can and should be solvable without tension as often community need and developer business models can be symbiotic. Take infrastructure and public services. Across the country access to health care and schools is increasingly stretched. In rural areas especially the crisis of public services is often exacerbated by poor local bus services and communal spaces such as cafes and pubs closing.  

Far from exacerbating this issue, property developers can and should be delivering vital infrastructure and spaces for communities to congregate. Take Pease Pottage where we are delivering a 619-home scheme in Sussex.  

As part of the scheme, we built a new £4 million primary school, £7 million in road improvements, improved transport links to regional hubs for jobs, a new community owned café and shop and improved wildlife and biodiversity with swift bricks installed in properties.  

Developing new communities and infrastructure is a chance to protect the environment, whilst also building beautiful sustainable homes. Thakeham takes great pride in ensuring this is delivered to the highest quality and to benefit all.