Housebuilder Berkeley Group has announced plans to start an additional 10,000 private and affordable homes over the next five years.

According to the company, this represents a major increase in its output, with Berkeley delivering more than 3,900 homes across all tenures in the last financial year.

The company said the move was an endorsement of the government’s target to deliver 1.5 million new homes during the current Parliament.

In a letter to deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, Berkeley Group’s chief executive Rob Perrins outlined the five key actions to achieve the “ambitious expansion”:

• Invest more working capital into existing long-term projects to accelerate production;
• Bring new sites into production by securing deliverable planning and statutory approvals for a further ten major regeneration projects, including Bromley by Bow Gasworks and the Ladywood regeneration in Birmingham;
• Deploy over £1bn of fresh investment capital into a new 4,000 home Built to Rent programme;
• Reopen Berkeley’s land investment programme, having not bought a significant new site in more than two and a half years;
• Maintain a commitment to education and training by ensuring at least 5% of the workforce is engaged with these areas as the company expands.

Perrins said: “Our ambition to start an additional 10,000 private and affordable homes is stretching, but with a truly collaborative approach it is achievable.

“Success depends on being able to successfully work in partnership across all levels of government, with key regulators like the Building Safety Regulator, and with statutory consultees of all kinds to work through the practical and economic challenges of each project to find a solution which serves the local community and gets homes built.”