The proposals were part of the residential financier’s housing manifesto for the region, which have been designed to help deliver 165,000 new homes in the West Midlands by 2030.

Urban Exposure has called on the combined authority and local councils to support smaller builders by improving access to finance and recognising the potential of such developers in local plans.

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The new policy proposals feature:

• the creation of an information portal for small public sector sites
• opening up a housing investment fund to private investors
• ensuring local plans include commitments to supporting smaller housebuilders and developers
• the launch of an early engagement programme with private developers on housing zone opportunities.

Randeesh Sandhu, chief executive of Urban Exposure (pictured above), said: “Creating a more diverse and resilient housebuilding market in the West Midlands is crucial to increasing the number of homes built each year.

“That means greater diversity in the size and type of developers building the homes the region needs.

“It also requires a wider selection of lenders who can bring alternative expertise and commercial perspectives to make both large and small schemes potentially more viable.

“Large housing schemes remain an important part of the solution to the West Midlands housing needs.

“But it is the smaller developers and schemes that are currently under-represented.”

Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders, added: “The ideas put forward by Urban Exposure can help in just the ways that smaller-scale builders need: improving access to finance, boosting opportunities for smaller-scale development and strengthening the links between local and regional government and locally based housebuilders.”

Earlier this year, Urban Exposure signed its first deal in the West Midlands by financing a development in the Digbeth regeneration area of Birmingham city centre.