LDS appoints Homes England development finance expert

He joins LDS at a time of fast growth, as our Sales Guarantee product continues to enable lenders to lend more and SME housebuilders to build more.

Ben joins LDS from Homes England, the Government’s housing accelerator, where he spent four years in senior roles, successfully delivering more than £2 billion of development finance joint ventures alongside both private and public sector partners. His background also includes through-cycle real estate finance experience at a senior level with Nationwide and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Ben has built up strong connections within the lending market over his twenty years in real estate finance. At LDS, he will work across the market to form alliances with quality lenders and capital providers – combining Sales Guarantees and development debt to harness the massive latent potential for SMEs to build more new homes.

“I love the product” explained Ben. “It’s just what the market needs – a genuinely credible piece of innovation with a hugely important purpose – to help SMEs build more new homes.”

Ben will be based in LDS’ new offices within the Shard Quarter, London Bridge and will immediately commence recruitment.

He added: “As well as improving lenders’ credit profile, the Sales Guarantee releases cash to allow SMEs to build more and build quicker. This combination is powerful in even the most challenging market conditions – so we are going to be busy! I look forward to building a diverse and creative team to keep us innovating as we grow”.

Mark Hawthorn, CEO at LDS Sales Guarantees, said: “Ben’s pedigree in development finance and product creation presents an ideal combination for LDS. Leading our operations in London and the South, he is already making a noticeable difference to the team; helping to bring our offering to more lenders as we continue to reframe the development finance landscape.”

More about Ben Jenkinson

• Whilst at Homes England, Ben and his team spearheaded the creation of over £2 billion new public/private alliances, using Government money in new ways to support SMEs build more homes.
• Notable products he created included:
  • ‘The Housing Delivery Fund’ – a £1 billion partnership with Barclays Bank, helping SME housebuilders grow output through the provision of senior and mezzanine construction loans of up to £100 million.
  • ‘The Housing Accelerator Fund’ – a pot of £250 million of construction loans created in partnership with specialist lender United Trust Bank.
  • In conjunction with Invest & Fund, a leading peer-to-peer lending platform, a £25m seven-year partnership to provide funding to micro and small housebuilders.
  • ‘The Greener Homes Alliance’, a partnership with Octopus Real Estate and Octopus Energy, which committed an initial £175 million in construction loan finance to SME housebuilders to enable them to build high quality, energy efficient homes – this product also included a free expert panel, providing advice and contacts to SMEs to help them build to better standards.
• Prior to Homes England, Ben was Head of Commercial Real Estate Restructuring at Nationwide, where he led a national team on property loan restructuring, successfully managing a loan portfolio of around £1.5 billion. Before joining Nationwide, he was Corporate Director for Real Estate at Royal Bank of Scotland.