The new firm Stepford Civils has invested in a fleet of Caterpillar machinery to work on a 50 homes development in West Lynn, and a pipeline of 12 sites across the region.

Stepford Homes’ contracts manager, Philip Hayden said: “Traditionally the company never had to carry out its own civils work as it would be outsourced.

“But since the recession it has become harder and harder to find a suitable civils company to carry out the work that needs to be done.

“It was at this point that Stepford Homes decided to bring all its civils work in-house, creating its own division Stepford Civils.”

He said the move had allowed builder to dramatically speed up its turnover time on sites.