Flaxby house factory will create 500 new jobs to aid expansion

Ilke Homes, the modular housing company, has said it intends to recruit 500 people for a range of new jobs, most of them at its head office and house factory at Flaxby, near Knaresborough.
Dave Sheridan, CEO of Ilke Homes at Flaxby near Knaresborough, walking between the modular homes being built. PHOTO: Gary Longbottom.Dave Sheridan, CEO of Ilke Homes at Flaxby near Knaresborough, walking between the modular homes being built. PHOTO: Gary Longbottom.
Dave Sheridan, CEO of Ilke Homes at Flaxby near Knaresborough, walking between the modular homes being built. PHOTO: Gary Longbottom.

The recruitment drive has been launched as the company ramps up production of its precision-engineered eco-homes to help address the national housing shortage.

The Government has set a target of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s, but has so far fallen far short of this.

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Ilke, which is backed by private equity firm TDR Capital and raised £60m in a fundraising round this summer, plans to deliver over 10,000 sustainable homes over the next five years.

Dave Sheridan, executive chairman at Ilke Homes, said: “The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has realised that green jobs will be vital in not only spurring on an economic recovery to Covid-19, but also to building back better and greener.

“Our recruitment drive is in direct response to this as we want to help support the ambition shared among ministers to create a highly-skilled workforce that is capable of delivering net-zero emissions by 2050.

“However, if the UK economy is to reach its legally binding carbon reduction targets, then there must be a step-change in the way we deliver homes, as these are responsible for 20 per cent of the UK’s total emissions.”

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Recruitment for the new roles, which include production, supervisory and office and business support functions, is being handled by global staffing consultancy Michael Page.

Alex Hall, head of customer development at Page Outsourcing, a PageGroup brand, said: “These roles will be critical when it comes to helping Ilke scale up their operations and continue to disrupt the house building market at a time where both housing shortages and environment issues are top of the agenda.

“We are excited to channel both our global and hyper local expertise towards this project and place the best candidates in the right roles at speed, whether that’s experienced hires or promising entry level talent.”

Mr Sheridan added: “By training people up from all walks of life to manufacture energy-efficient housing in factories, companies, such as ourselves, can help create the skills needed to decarbonise housing, deliver significant social value via the creation of highly-skilled employment opportunities and open up the industry to groups that have been previously under-represented in housebuilding – such as women.”