Housebuilder Bellway has launched a new division in the East of Scotland to help meet demand for new homes in the area.

Bellway Homes Limited (Scotland East) has opened the doors of its new offices in Almondvale Business Park in Livingston.

Under the management of regional director, Iain Allison, the new office will initially be responsible for developments in Shawfair, East Calder, Broxburn, Perth and Edinburgh.

Twenty-six staff are based in the new office with a total of 70 between the office and the company’s sites in the East.

The five-star housebuilder’s other developments across Scotland will continue to be managed from Bellway Homes Limited (Scotland West) offices in Hamilton.

Andy Wyles, regional managing director for Scotland, said: “Bellway continues to increase its market share in the Central Belt of Scotland and the opening of this new division shows the confidence we have in the Scottish Housing Market.

“We have grown significantly in recent years and with such a wide geographic spread of developments from Motherwell to Perth and from Barassie in Ayrshire to Dalkeith, it makes operational sense for us to now have a base in the East.

“We have lots of exciting plans for new developments in this part of Scotland and we have a fantastic team in place in Livingston, headed up by Iain who is passionate about the importance of offering first class customer care and building high quality homes that exceed the expectations of our buyers.”

The company has plans to increase the number of outlets from the current five to eleven over the course of the next twelve months, launching two new sites from the Livingston office in early 2019 – a development of 110 homes, adjacent to the company’s Winchburgh Village site and 170 units at Gilmerton in Edinburgh.

Further sites in Livingston, Perth, Dunfermline, Mid and East Lothian are already earmarked for development over the next two years.

Iain Allison, who has been with Bellway since 2009, said: “I am very excited about the launch of the new division, which will play a key strategic role in the company’s growth in Scotland.

“We have been preparing for this launch since I was appointed to the role in November last year so it is fantastic to now be standing in the office surrounded by an incredible team of people – some of whom have been promoted internally and some completely new faces. There’s a real buzz about the office and we have ambitious targets to be building over 450 units annually by 2021.”