Taylor Wimpey rolls out its first graduate programme for its strategic land department next month.
The housebuilding giant, which has 100,000 strategic land sites, the largest number of any UK housebuilder, is recruiting eight university graduates with property-related degrees for a two-year training programme as it seeks to bring young blood into one of the biggest areas of its business.
Strategic land accounts for 51% of the company’s overall housing development completions.
The graduate programme intends to see recruits through to qualification as chartered surveyors, and a full-time job within the firm, with the opportunity to be fast-tracked to director level within five years.
Strategic land is land that does not have planning permission, and must be acquired and put through planning to achieve consent to build housing. This process can take between two and 20 years.
However, James Malyon, assistant land manager, who has worked at the firm for more than 18 months, told EG in its Tomorrow’s Leaders podcast that people often don’t know what strategic land is.
He added: “When you’ve driven round a district or a local authority and you’ve looked at maps and planning documents and said, ‘That site looks like it’s got potential’, then progress it through deal terms and planning, to see houses built on the site is extremely rewarding.”
Malyon is interviewed on the Tomorrow’s Leader’s podcast with Benjamin Coles, regional director.
The pair agreed that politics is often the biggest barrier to achieving planning consent and that “tenacity” is a key quality the company looks for in its new recruits to overcome that challenge.
See also: Strategic Land overview: What do we do?
To send feedback, e-mail Rebecca.Kent@egi.co.uk or tweet @Writer_RKent or @estatesgazette
