Stonebridge Homes sets out plans to support 1.5m housing target
From coastal Whitby to new developments around Doncaster, Yorkshire is set to play a key role in the future growth plans of Stonebridge Homes.
But according to its new interim managing director, Ed Hutchinson, the housebuilder’s ambitions depend as much on political stability as they do on land supply and buyer confidence.
Stonebridge Homes was founded in 2010 by Darren Stubbs as a joint venture with Sheffield-based Henry Boot. The business initially focused on building high-quality family homes in Yorkshire before expanding into the North East and, more recently, the Midlands. At the end of 2024, Henry Boot agreed a deal to buy out Darren’s share over a five-year period, bringing Stonebridge fully into the Henry Boot group.
“We believe in the brand. It’s very much premium homes, high-quality homes.
"The average selling price last year was probably around £420,000," says Ed.
Stonebridge employs around 100 people and has grown steadily beyond its Yorkshire roots. Ed says expansion was necessary to avoid oversaturating local markets.
“You can’t cannibalise your own market,” he says. “So to grow the business and the volume of houses we’re building, we needed to cast the net wider geographically.”
Today, Stonebridge has live sites across Yorkshire, the North East and parts of the Midlands. Its most northern site is in Morpeth, while Yorkshire locations include Whitby and several schemes in and around Doncaster. The business expects to complete the acquisition of a new site in Barnby Dun, Doncaster, by the end of March, with construction ready to begin immediately. “Probably the majority of our live sites are in the North East at the moment, closely followed by Yorkshire,” Ed says.
The company’s customer base varies widely by location. “We’ve actually got quite a broad spectrum of customers,” he says. “On some developments, like Morpeth, the average sales price is nearer £500,000 and we have downsizers and people approaching retirement. But on other sites we’re selling homes below £250,000, where first-time buyers are absolutely our key target.”
After a period of rapid growth between 2020 and 2023, when completions reached around 300 homes a year, Stonebridge felt the impact of a tougher housing market in 2024.
“We completed 260 sales,” Ed says. “Then last year we completed less than 200 sales, which was certainly below what we’d targeted. It was a tough market. Q1 and Q4 were really difficult, and the announcement of the autumn budget didn’t help.”
Despite that, he says the slowdown has prompted a sharper strategic focus. “It’s brought us together with a renewed focus on where we can improve efficiency and think more strategically about the size and mix of our sites.”
The long-term ambition is clear. “The overall strategy is to grow the business,” Ed says. “Our target is to aim towards 600 units in five years’ time, and I think we have a credible strategy to support that.”
Land availability remains one of the biggest challenges. “Land is such a precious commodity,” he says. “Once you find land that ticks the boxes, you’ve then got to get through planning, which can be quite challenging.”
Stonebridge typically builds on land with an allocation or outline consent and has not historically targeted green belt or brownfield sites. While recent planning changes may help secure outline approvals, Ed says reserved matters applications, which define the specific, detailed aspects of a project, remain difficult.
The business differentiates itself through design and specification. “It’s really important to us that we create an interesting street scene,” Ed says. “No Stonebridge street scene looks the same. We also make sure the spaces between houses are bigger, which creates a more spacious environment.”
Inside, he adds, “the levels of specification are high. We use premium materials. We try to create bigger rooms and the square footage tends to be bigger than a lot of the competition – quite a number of house types are over 2000 sq ft. Sustainability is at the forefront too, with solar panels, car charging points and smart technology standard.”
Early signs in 2026 have been positive. “I’m pleased to say that interest in buying Stonebridge Homes has been more positive than I thought it would be on the first of January,” Ed says. “I fully expect that by the end of this month, sales will be ahead of our business plan.”
But he warns that political uncertainty could quickly undermine that progress. “The last thing we need is a Prime Minister leadership battle,” he says. “What we need is stability. That should be good for the economy, good for private enterprise and good for housing.”