The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for SME Housebuilders has launched a new campaign, designed to increase the number of women in the housebuilding industry, called I am a Housebuilder.
Of the 2000 SME housebuilders today, less than 2% are owned and led by women. Also, there are only 297,000* women working in construction across the UK, compared to 1.8 million men, with just 1% of women working as a skilled trades professional.
The initiative is being driven by the APPG’s new secretariat, Edwin de Silva, an industry veteran and co-chair for the Regional Builders Hub Steering Group in support of The King’s Foundation and chair of the APPG, Andrew Lewer MBE, Member of Parliament Northampton South.
The campaign is led by seven of the foremost female SME housebuilding founders and managing directors, dubbed the ‘magnificent seven’. These women are all leading highly successful development businesses and are committed to mentoring and supporting more women to become SME housebuilders.
They include Sarah Barraclough, managing director, Skipton Properties, Rosey Cassidy, director, Newman Rose, Charlotte Edwards, managing director, Dennis Edwards Homes, Sophie Horgan, director, Horgan Homes, Georgina Hammond, co-founder and director, Beau Property, Alice Maughan, creative director and designer, Stronghold Homes and Xuan Meng, founder and director, Cosy Hauz.
The campaign will focus on three pledges, which will be rolled out throughout 2024 and will culminate in an industry networking event in Parliament, to bring politicians, partners, allies and female housebuilders together.
The pledges are: increase visibility of successful women within the sector to attract more women to apply for roles; create a senior mentoring network to help women into leadership positions; and work in partnership with trade bodies and organisations to positively promote the sector to women of all ages, when recruiting from apprenticeship to the board room.
The APPG for SME Housebuilders is a cross-party forum building political consensus to create the best environment for regional SME housebuilders to thrive, and to encourage new entrants to gain a foothold in the sector.
*16.5% of the construction workforce. Of the APPG members, 15% are female, despite 34.6% of MPs being women.
