North East employer The Banks Group has chosen experienced industry professional Russ Hall to lead the next stage of the development of its property businesses.
Russ brings more than 20 years’ sector experience to the County Durham-headquartered firm and has taken on a dual executive role with the business.
He is now managing director of the family firm’s longstanding property development arm, Banks Property, and he has also taken on the same position with its new dedicated regional housebuilding company, Banks Homes, which operates across the North East and Yorkshire.
Russ, who is from Teesside, has fulfilled a range of senior property roles in both the public and private sectors across the North East and North Yorkshire.
He was previously managing director of residential developer Taylor Wimpey plc’s North East business, having worked his way up through a number of different executive roles with the company over the last decade.
He is also a non-executive director of Northumbria Healthcare Facilities Management, an NHS-owned business which provides high quality, safe and effective estates and facilities management services to Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
The Banks Group has 47 years’ experience of developing land for commercial property, residential property and energy-related projects.
As well as managing the construction on some of the sites that Banks Property brings forward, Banks Homes will also look to acquire its own development sites directly from the market.
“Both Banks Property and Banks Homes have a strong pipeline of projects at different stages of development, and we’re excited about the prospects for both businesses”
Banks Property will continue to work independently, promoting land opportunities and bringing high quality development sites to the market for many of the UK’s best-known housebuilders, as it has done successfully for over 35 years.
Russ Hall says: “Banks’ strong position as a respected North East business, its ambitions to keep taking advantage of new opportunities through diversification and its longstanding focus on working positively with local communities made joining the company a very appealing option for me.
“Our extensive property development experience made it a logical step for us to start building new, high-quality and sustainable homes ourselves, and I’m aiming to use my experience of managing large-scale residential development to quickly establish Banks Homes as a leading operator in the regional housebuilding sector.
“The new division will work independently, but alongside, the existing operations of Banks Property, which will continue to work with our landowner, agent and developer partners to identify, promote and sell land for the development of new homes by many of the UK’s best-known housebuilders.
“Both Banks Property and Banks Homes have a strong pipeline of projects at different stages of development, with a number of new proposals set to come forward in the near future, and we’re excited about the prospects for both businesses in the coming years.”