South East Brownfield developer appoints new CEO and bids for northern housebuilder

By Nicky Godding

25 July 2023

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Meridian Waterside Inland Homes

On the day the government restated its manifesto commitment to build one million homes over this Parliament, and focus on prioritising building in inner-city areas where demand is highest and growth is being constrained, Inland Homes plc, the Beaconsfield-based brownfield developer, housebuilder and partnership housing company with a focus on the South and South East of England has appointed Jolyon Harrison, 75, as Chief Executive Officer.

Jolyon has more than 50 years of house building experience, including as Chief Executive Officer of MJ Gleeson plc between October 2014 and June 2019, and previously Managing Director of Gleeson Homes. Prior to that he was founder and Chairman of Pelham Construction / NorthCountry Homes Group and was also Managing Director of Shepherd Homes.

Nishith Malde, who was one of the founding shareholders of the Inland Homes in 2005 and is currently Chief Financial Officer and Acting Chief Executive Officer, is to retire.

Inland Homes has also agreed to acquire NorthCountry for £4 million, to be settled by the issue of 40 million new ordinary shares in Inland Homes. Jolyon is Executive Chairman and 51 per cent shareholder in NorthCountry. The proposed acquisition is subject to legal and financial due diligence, agreement of a formal sale agreement, the obtaining of any required shareholder and regulatory approvals, restoration to trading on AIM of Inland Homes' existing shares and the admission to trading of the new ordinary shares to be issued for the proposed acquisition.

Shares in Inland Homes were suspended in April as a result of not filing its accounts on time.

Matthew Robinson, Chair of Inland Homes, said: "Jolyon is a proven leader, with a strong track record of operational, strategic and commercial success in construction and property development. The whole Inland team looks forward to his contribution to this next stage of Inland's corporate development."

Jolyon Harrison, CEO of Inland Homes, added: "I am delighted to be joining Inland as CEO. Inland has a valuable consented land bank in the South and South East of England and has a number of similarities with where I was in 2009. We will be expanding the low cost homes business model of NorthCountry in the North of England, based in Wakefield, taking advantage of low Northern land values and developing the Inland brownfield and strategic land business in the South where land values are high, as well as completing Inland's existing construction commitments. In due course it is proposed to rebrand the business to reflect its focus on housebuilding in the north of England. The Group will remain headquartered in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire for the foreseeable future. I look forward to the Inland team helping me to turn the business round which will take a while, but we are looking forward to a profitable future."

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.