Both residential development and support services companies will move from under Willmott Dixon’s umbrella to become sister businesses

This will give each greater operational, financial and strategic independence to crank up growth plans.

In particular, it will allow the residential arm to seek further investors to help fund delivery of its 7,500-home pipeline.

Group chief executive Rick Willmott said: “The revised structure also supports our wish to give top management in each of our three core businesses a more direct share in their company and in the success they help create.

“During 2017 the businesses will move out from under the Willmott Dixon ‘umbrella’ to become ‘sister’ rather than ‘subsidiary’ businesses to Willmott Dixon, whilst remaining owned and controlled by the same shareholder family.

Willmott said: “This year has seen some important developments to support our growth ambitions.

“In May, we formed Willmott Residential to combine the capabilities of Prime Place, Be:here and Homes within one company.

“This has already opened up many new opportunities for sharing skills, identifying new land opportunities and bringing a more holistic approach to house building for our partners and customers.”

He added: “More recently, we rebranded our support services businesses as Fortem to grow a strong new brand utilising the technical strengths and capabilities that exist in our people to create a business with greater access to a variety of markets outside its core housing sector.”

“Willmott Dixon will remain a billion pound plus company in 2017 and we’ll focus on our core strength of contracting, both new build and fit-out, with 85% of budgeted workload identified and secured for 2017.”