About the Project

Hanwell Square

Construction of 191 homes, completed in 167 weeks.

Chris Homewood’s early delivery of 102 units on this project for 191 homes underpinned its success. His acceleration of the build allowed 56 Help to Buy completions to take place before the government scheme closed – the closure date became known only two months before handover – and clinched Chris’s promotion to project director for the phase 2 construction of another 169 homes. 

His management agility was evident in his incorporation of an extra storey to the bigger of the two blocks by flipping the sequencing to tackle the smaller one first. It took the additional construction off the critical path and allowed faster completion of the marketing suite and show flat. 

When deliveries of the Ukrainian-made wood flooring were halted by the Russian invasion, Chris took the decision to stop all floor laying and sourced an alternative. The replacement suited the design while avoiding hefty cost spikes, and decorating the units before the flooring arrived pulled back the lost time. 

He also drove innovation, changing the riser doors from timber to steel. As they were fitted at first fix, no temporary fire door was needed during construction, and the four-sided door frames eliminated movement and shrinkage. More expensive to buy, they were still cheaper overall and are now the preferred specification on all the contractor’s multistorey projects.