Keith Miller talks to us about ‘the Cavanna Way’, maintaining high standards of quality and consideration within the industry, and why apprentices are the future of the housebuilding industry.
Please tell us about your role and responsibilities as managing director of Cavanna Homes.
My chief responsibility is to deliver ‘building brilliance’; in terms of an excellent range of high-quality new homes for people in the West Country, and a thriving company where our staff and subcontractors are able to work to their full potential in a happy, healthy, and safe environment.
Building Brilliance is part of ‘the Cavanna Way’; the very essence of the company and the focus of our values since our inception in 1923. As we grow the business it is important that we maintain the Cavanna Way in a larger organisation.
All our developments are within two hours of our head office in Torquay, so I regularly visit our sites to stay up-to-date on how the developments are progressing and to speak with the site teams. I started my career as an apprentice bricklayer, and I still get great satisfaction from seeing the transformation of a site into a community of new homes – even after all this time.
Apprentices are the future of our industry, so making sure apprentices receive the best training and support is a key priority for me and I’m passionate about raising the profile of homebuilding as a great career. We aim to be at the forefront of health and safety excellence in the housebuilding industry, which is why we have introduced random drug and alcohol testing for all employees and contractors on site and in the office. In addition, we have also joined the Home Builders Federation (HBF) ‘Building Mental Health’ initiative and now have trained mental health first aiders in the company.
The company recently celebrated its 95th anniversary and we’re setting some ambitious targets for our upcoming centenary year in 2023 which will certainly keep me busy over the next few years. We have an excellent team so this is a very exciting time for us.
Cavanna Homes is a fourth-generation family firm, how do you think this strengthens the company?
Cavanna Homes was founded by PD Cavanna in Torquay in 1923, and is still owned by members of the Cavanna family. Third and fourth generation family members are actively involved in the day-to-day business. Our vision, mission and purpose is the same as it always was; to build high quality new homes which people enjoy living in and we’re proud to put our name to.
The company has grown considerably in the past nine decades and we have earned a well-deserved reputation for building beautiful new homes, yet we still remain a family business committed to the principles of quality and consideration on which we were founded.
What are the current residential projects you're focusing on?
This year is our busiest construction year to date, with eight live sites and three to open later this year across Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset. We’re currently building new homes in a range of town and village locations including Barnstaple, Dawlish, Newton Poppleford near Sidmouth, Wolborough Hill in Newton Abbot, Tavistock, and Bodmin.
Work has now started at Broadleigh Park in Tavistock – a development of 148 new open market and affordable homes.
Our Cavanna @ Wolborough Hill scheme in Newton Abbot is also a focus for the firm this year. Occupying a park-like setting, there are just 26 large detached and semi-detached homes on this site which are well spaced out and enjoy great views from the hilltop towards Dartmoor.
Cavanna Homes offers a 'Move Assist' scheme, how does this help buyers?
Our Move Assist scheme offers practical and financial assistance for homeowners who have their heart set on buying one of our new build homes, but are struggling to sell their existing property.
Our aim is to cut out some of the time-consuming and often stressful steps of moving home so that our buyers can move into their new property without having to worry about selling their previous home and paying estate agent fees.
Does Cavanna Homes offer incentives to buyers?
We’re proud to be an approved Help to Buy builder, and we offer a mortgage calculator and stamp duty calculator on our website, as well as a step-by-step guide to take people through each stage of the buying process. Part Exchange is also providing a useful tool for us to use.
What advice do you have for anybody looking to buy a new home?
When people look for a new home the community and local area are just as important, if not more so, than the house itself. When visiting a development, ask what the homebuilders are doing to support and improve the local area and the benefits for new residents. We take pride in supporting the communities in which we build.
How do you work to conserve wildlife in the beautiful areas in which you build?
We work closely with ecologists, statutory consultees, and council planning teams to ensure we are doing all we can to preserve and enhance our natural environment, which is particularly important in the rural Westcountry.
We retain trees and hedgerows, and open green space as a common feature of our developments.
We’ve built bird and bat boxes to encourage and conserve local wildlife, as well as adding in ‘hedgehog highways’. We also plant a variety of trees, shrubs, and flowers throughout our schemes to encourage even more wildlife.
At our Fusion development in Paignton we worked alongside architects LHC Design to design and build a bespoke home for rare lesser horseshoe bats. Our local ecology consultants EAD have since confirmed the bats have made use of their new home.
Is there a particular type of person who tends to be drawn to your schemes?
We understand that around 80% of our homebuyers move to our new homes from the local area. People who live in the West Country like to stay here – it is such a beautiful place to live after all!
Cavanna Homes recently employed an artisan bricklayer for its schemes - how has this enhanced your developments?
With the government’s housebuilding target of 300,000 new homes each year, there is a natural temptation to introduce more cost effective and less time-consuming modern-day building methods. However, we are investing in traditional building skills to help define the character of our homes and developments, reflecting a local vernacular, so the development fits well with the surroundings.
We’ve used artisan bricklayers or stonemasons at a number of our developments, including Origins and Yarners Mill at Dartington near Totnes in the South Hams, to add historic charm to the homes, as well as Cavanna @ Wolborough Hill in Newton Abbot, which features a handcrafted 30-metre wall at the entrance of the site.
Although building with stone can be costly and can slow down the building process, when completed to a high standard it gives a far higher-quality finish and supports our Building Brilliance ambition.
What's proving particularly popular in terms of interior trends for your Devon buyers?
Last year we launched our Westcountry Collection – a range of new portfolio house styles which have been developed in response to what people want from a new home, according to industry research. This includes open plan living areas, increased ceiling heights in ground floor rooms and on-trend fitted kitchens and bathrooms.
When people view a show home, they need to envisage themselves living there. Interior design plays an important part so we make sure our show homes are professionally designed with a bespoke feel which reflects the local area and, very often, some of our seaside locations.