About Us

John McCartney is an investor, chairman, and executive board member of several UK based technology, manufacturing and consultancy companies.

John’s career began in banking, both in the UK and the US. He was early to identify the huge growth potential in the Computer, Networking and IT markets and formed a fledgling computer reseller, Rapid Networks, which he grew to become one of the largest specialist resellers in the UK during the 1990s. The company supplied many of the global blue-chip companies of the time and John leveraged this unique supplier position to grow the business by acquiring over 28 competitors and companies with additional complementary services to form Rapid Group plc. John grew Rapid from start-up to £28m turnover in 8 years resulting in a hugely profitable disposal in the late 1990s.

Since this early success John used his knowledge and expertise to invest in and become a partner and director in a wide range of industries including construction, insurance, distribution, luxury fragrance, confectionery, dentistry, power tools and DIY. John is very "hands-on" and played a key role in a house-building company which developed a number of large and small residential property schemes. He was involved in all aspects of the business including site identification, acquisition, planning, warranty insurance, construction management, sales and maintenance.

John is often sought out by large organisations for acquisition, growth strategy and disposal advice.

Paul Cooper is a construction management professional whose career in the industry commenced in the 1980's. Paul has in-depth knowledge of house building, construction, construction management, new home warranty and latent defects and general insurance. His experience covers all types of development including residential, commercial, mixed-use, off-site manufacture, modern methods of construction (MMC), new build, conversion and refurbishment. 

Paul has worked for two major insurance companies which provided new home warranty policies and co-founded a latent defects and new home warranty provider, launched in 2010, operating as a Managing General Agent (MGA).

Paul's extensive experience gained in over 35 years in the UK new home building market places him in a unique position. Paul will leverage his expertise, helping home-builders, developers, contractors, MMC manufacturers and housing associations / registered providers change the way they procure and manage their latent defects insurance and new home warranty policies.

The Government is funding the development and creation of a new PAS for the off-site manufacture of residential homes. Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is the phrase that Government and the home-building / construction industry widely acknowledge as encompassing the complete range of technical designs, types of manufacturing systems and materials employed to create homes made predominantly off-site. The new PAS, known as PAS 8700, will help to standardise the approach to innovative new off-site manufactured housing systems in the UK. The British Standards Institution (BSI) has been engaged to develop PAS 8700 with a publication target of Spring 2025. A diverse range of industry and other specialists have been selected by BSI to create the various groups and committees required to complete the delivery process. New Home Warranty is proud that Paul Cooper is part of the Steering Group which provides input to the development of the PAS and establishes the consensus on which the document is based.

During his career Paul achieved the following professional qualifications:

FCIOB - Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building - Chartered Construction Manager

FCABE - Fellow of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers - Chartered Building Engineer

CEnv - Member of the Society for the Environment - Chartered Environmentalist 

Latent defects insurance has been available for many years in different forms. Sometimes known as: new home warranties / structural defects insurance / inherent defects insurance / structural latent defects cover / new home warranty policy. Despite the different names these products are insurance policies, not a warranty in the sense that consumers are used to when buying a product from a shop or online retailer. The insurance policy is written to provide insurance cover for certain defined insured events such as: structural movement of a building or moisture ingress through the building envelope as a direct result of a failure by the developer of the building to meet a pre-determined technical construction standard.

In the 1930’s the Government expressed substantial concerns about the poor standards of home building following the slum clearance programmes and the inter-war years' housing boom. During this period limited availability of manpower and skills, financial pressures and incompetence led to poor quality buildings being constructed. The building industry created an organisation called the National House Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) in 1936; this enabled the building industry to avoid Government legislation of building standards.

The NHBRC created a set of building standards and carried out random assessments of the building work being undertaken on site by their members to help ensure compliance with these standards. Over time a two-year warranty, issued by the builder, was administered by the NHBRC. In 1965 this evolved in to the ten-year Buildmark warranty which is more common today and was an insurance policy underwritten by a separate and independent insurance company.

In 1973 the NHBRC was renamed National House Building Council (NHBC). in 1978 the NHBC's insurers had suffered some significant losses from subsidence claims from the very dry summers in 1976 and 1977. The NHBC raised enough funds to become an insurance company to deliver the Buildmark Warranty itself. 

In 1985 the Government introduced legislation that allowed private sector Approved Inspectors (AI) to monitor compliance with Building Regulations for commercial buildings. Local Authority Building Control was still required to complete the checks on residential properties, however this was about to change as the NHBC became the only AI permitted to provide Building Control services for new residential dwellings.

In 1988 Local Authority Building Control (LABC) were keen to launch a ten year new home warranty policy of their own to help them compete with the NHBC’s move in to the Building Control market. LABC approached the Local Government insurer, Municipal Mutual Insurance (MMI) and a new era in structural home warranties was born. Foundation 15, a fifteen year latent defects insurance policy was launched by MMI in 1989. This was NHBC’s first ever competitor for the provision of new home warranties.

In 1993 Zurich, one of the world’s largest insurers, agreed to purchase MMI’s assets and re-branded and launched its own range of ten year latent defect new home warranties. Zurich needed to innovate to complete  with NHBC and developed different types of warranty policy for the private sector, the public sector, commercial developments and self-build projects. Zurich created flexible cover with optional additional clauses and 12 year policies where social housing building contracts were signed under seal / executed as a Deed. The NHBC was losing market share and launched its own 12 year policy for social housing projects (substantially similar to the Zurich Insurance policy) called Buildmark Choice, which is still available today.

During the early 1990s a new warranty provider joined the market: Housing Associations Property Mutual (HAPM). They offered a warranty purely for social housing projects with policy cover which varied in length depending on the element of the building being insured. The load bearing structure could be insured for up to 35 years with other elements benefitting from a lower cover period. The continual pressure on cost reduction in the social housing sector meant that 35 year cover was no longer affordable and the warranty market was back to the original ten and twelve years offered by NHBC and Zurich, Building Guarantee. HAPM left the market altogether within a few years.

In 1997 an insurance broker called MD Insurance Services (MDIS) launched a brand called Premier Guarantee (PG) to offer a ten year structural warranty in substantially similar format to that of NHBC and Zurich. MDIS continue to offer their new home warranty policies under the Premier Guarantee brand as well as their second brand LABC Warranty.

During 1999 BLP (Building Life Plans) launched their own ten year insurance policies for new homes although they do not always offer the same type of cover as other new home warranties available with lower sums insured and restrictions on water penetration cover. BLP announced its withdrawal from the residential market in November 2019.

In 2009 Zurich made an announcement to exit the market completely and it closed its doors to new business at the end of September that year.

Since then there has been an explosion of new home warranty providers to the market offering policies with very different levels of cover, sums insured, policy excesses and exclusions. Some of the warranty providers you may come across are: AEDIS, AHCI, Build Warranty, Build Zone, CADIS, Checkmate, Global Home Warranties, ICW, LABC Warranty, NHBC, National House Building Council, One Guarantee, Premier Guarantee, Protek and Q Assure Build.

The launch of New Home Warranty in 2023 heralds a new era in the latent defects and new home warranty market and is built upon the expertise and knowledge of some of the industry's most experienced people.