United Trust Bank targets North of England with development finance expansion

A UTB spokesman told Specialist Lending Solutions the hires were part of the lender’s drive to expand its presence into the regions, particularly the North of England.

Bird and Griffin join a team which has doubled in size in the last six months. They will be focused on maintaining and developing relationships with house builders and property investors in their regions and helping them to secure funding for suitable developments.

Bird will be building relationships with brokers and developers across the southern half of England and Wales as well as supporting existing UTB customers. Griffin will be introducing UTB’s products and services to new and existing customers operating predominantly in Yorkshire and the North East.

At the end of 2017, Huw Jenkins and Paul Flannery joined the Bank together with Paul Keay, Jonathan Nail, Adam Bovingdon, Orla Costello, Steve Brigly and development finance head of sales, Paul Turton.

Team of nine

The lender now has nine property development directors and managers, and a head of sales, serving developers and brokers across the country.

Noel Meredith, executive director of United Trust Bank, said: “United Trust Bank has had a strong presence in the development finance sector for many years but over the last six months we’ve expanded the team further.

“This growth follows another successful year for development finance at UTB and our securing an Enable guarantee from the British Business Bank which greatly increases our capacity to lend to SME house builders.

“The continued expansion of our activities and investment in the team underlines our commitment to serving UK house builders through the property cycle. With an increased capital base, we have funds immediately available to lend to those experienced developers wishing to build the right homes in the right places and for the right prices,” he added.

(Pictured: Back Row: Phil Bird, Paul Keay, Evan Griffin, Noel Meredith, Steve Brigly, Paul Turton. Front Row: Orla Costello, Paul Flannery, Jonathan Nail, Adam Bovingdon.)