Step Forward Homes is on the cusp of securing funding from an unnamed backer that it describes as “one of the biggest institutional funders in the property market”.

Founded in 2014, it has just opened its 100th home aimed at ex-servicemen and women and emergency workers, and the new investment will enable it to ramp up its output to 1,000 units a year over the next five years, says sales and marketing director Chris Metcalf.