A HOUSEBUILDER looks set to become one of the region’s largest employers with plans to take on hundreds of staff.

Modular housing company, ilke Homes, has joined forces with housing recruitment specialists Andersen James in a move expected to create more than 500 roles.

The partnership will also see the firms working towards ilke Homes’ target for women to account for 20 percent of its workforce.

This will be achieved by working together on the first industry-leading MMC apprenticeship, among other initiatives.

The recruitment drive follows two years of rapid growth for the Knaresborough company, which recently raised £60m from Government and private sector investors, including Asda owners TDR Capital, to support its expansion.

Founded four years ago, the company's order book is worth more than £200m and its pipeline consists of more than 3,000 homes.

Andersen James' diversity campaign is focused on gender initially, spending time in local communities and creating women’s-only assessment centres, to boost female applicants.

The partnership began at the start of the year, with 126 candidates joining them throughout January alone.

Dave Sheridan, executive chairman at ilke Homes, said: “We have a responsibility to help people from all backgrounds find employment and for too long, the construction sector has sat on its hands while the skills shortage has hit crisis point. Creating local jobs and helping get more women and young people into the sector have to be priorities.

“By training people up from all walks of life to manufacture energy-efficient housing in factories, companies, such as ourselves, can help create the skills needed to decarbonise housing, deliver significant social value via the creation of highly-skilled employment opportunities and open up the industry to groups that have been previously under-represented in house building - such as women.”

Jo Mansell, executive director of partnerships at Ilke Homes, said they were seeing strong results from working with Andersen James.