The Homebuilding Centre Limited - now majority owned by its employees!

Since 2014, the award-winning National Self Build & Renovation Centre (NSBRC) has been owned and operated by ‘The Homebuilding Centre Limited’, an employee-owned business. The NSBRC welcomed its first visitors in 2007 and, eighteen years on, remains the UK’s only permanent visitor centre designed specifically to meet the needs of individual self-builders, renovators and home improvers.

Now (from April 2025) the business has taken the opportunity to evolve from a ‘hybrid’ EO model to a majority EOT owned model – with over 51% of the business now held in an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). An EOT is a special entity which holds shares on behalf of the employees of a given company.

Employee Ownership Trusts are the most common way that businesses move into employee ownership in the UK. They are simple, easy to administer, and allocate benefits and responsibilities of ownership to a broader group of employees without them needing to pay for this personally.

Brought into existence by the government in 2014, EOTs offer two significant tax advantages. Firstly, company owners who sell more than 50% of their ownership to an EOT are exempt from capital gains tax from that sale. Secondly, companies that are more than 50% owned by an EOT can provide their employees with income tax-free bonuses of up to £3,600.

The Homebuilding Centre’s managing director, Harvey Fremlin, says: “The team at the NSBRC have always had a genuine stake in the business via our ‘hybrid’ ownership model. Now, with the majority of shares held by our Employee Ownership Trust, alongside our Share Incentive Plan and a small number of direct share-holders (all employees of the business), we can build on our culture of openness and transparency, with colleagues feeling more empowered to share ideas and help develop the business. A great example of this is our two elected employee representatives, who attend our board meetings and ensure the teams views are heard”.

This transition to a majority EOT model was partially enabled by the sale of a small number of ordinary shares by the companies’ sole investor, Capital for Colleagues (C4C). The specialist investors share the businesses aim of reaching an employee-owned holding of 87% by 2026, with C4C holding the remaining 13% of ordinary shares.

Following the evolution of the business to a majority EOT owned company, Capital for Colleagues’ CEO, Alistair Currie, said: “From C4C’s perspective the management and employees of NSBRC provide a role model amongst our investees for the positive impact which well-designed and executed Employee Ownership can have on the culture and performance of any business. We are delighted to have shared the journey with our colleagues in this business towards this landmark achievement”

In 2024, the business hosted a special dinner to celebrate its first decade of Employee Ownership, with over a hundred guests in attendance. Popular BBC News presenter and journalist, Martine Croxall, hosted the evening, providing an insightful and highly-topical address on the importance of transparency in the media, and introduced guest speakers including James de le Vingne, CEO of the Employee Ownership Association (EOA). Employee ownership is growing in popularity – with built-in tax advantages and proven increases in productivity - and the EOA currently sees one transition of an existing business to employee ownership every day.

The National Self Build & Renovation Centre’s team are gearing up towards their next large-scale event, ‘The Festival of Sustainable Homes’, which takes place at the NSBRC on 16 & 17 May 2025. Free advance tickets are currently available at: nsbrc.co.uk.