SEED Homes Ltd
As a company which receives metnet’s regular email bulletins, SEED Homes discovered they could be eligible for funding to help develop their business model. In 2011, the company was awarded a £10,000 grant through Business Link’s Hi-Growth programme.
SEED Homes is building communities for the future, today. The Herefordshire company combines ethical and sustainable business practices to provide homes which are stylish, affordable and comfortable. What makes SEED Homes different is that its properties are cost effective to live in, they have been built quickly, cleanly and sustainably to achieve a Level 4 rating in the Code for Sustainable Homes and are available at a price that prospective buyers can afford.
SEED aims to deal with the problems of people in rural communities facing higher house price rises, lower wages and a current shortage of lending by bringing together finance, local authorities, landowners and builders to provide affordable rural housing. To achieve this aim, the team at SEED recognised they needed assistance to take the next step in the development of the business.
Peter Lawley, of SEED Homes, said the company was delighted to be warded the funding with business coaching sessions already under way. “We are a very small business at the point of take-off but we needed help for us to develop our business model of building affordable housing in small rural communities. ‘The funding enabled us to work with David Hebblethwaite, an entrepreneur who has run his own businesses. He as experience in the building industry and previously helped us source financing for initial stages of a small housing development”.
“It is important for us to identify the capital to make that first foray into establishing a development and David has lots of ideas and contacts which we hope can help us do that. We’ve already begun coaching sessions and although it’s early days, we’re optimistic that thanks to the grant which metnet alerted us to, we can forge ahead with the next step in our business strategy.” SEED Homes currently has one large private contract under construction and has recently completed a boarding house for 20 children with an attached three-bedroom dwelling to Code 4 standard.
“There are an enormous number of people in the Marches region who cannot afford to get on the housing ladder. We want to build a development which supplies affordable housing using sustainable methods and materials for people who are being priced out of the market,” added Peter. The UK government has committed to making all new homes zero carbon by 2016 and introduced the Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) in 2006 which tests a range of environmental impacts to award a rating of between one and six. SEED homes are built to CSH level 4 and easily surpass the requirements of the most recent changes to the building regulations. The emissions associated with energy use in a SEED home are around 70 per cent lower than for a standard dwelling. Through a combination of low-water usage fittings and rainwater harvesting water, usage is only 50 per cent of that of an average home. The SEED system uses a structural timber panel constructed in Wales of Welsh spruce and filled with insulation composed entirely of recycled newspaper. The panel system also contributes towards a rapid build, less site disruption and greatly reduced site waste as well as better quality control on site. Local businesses are supported and emissions associated with transport are minimised.
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