ONE of Britain's largest building firms has set up a new team with a brief to identify building sites in the Thames Gateway.

Redrow Regeneration, part of the Redrow group, will particularly seek to identify brownfield sites for housing in the Essex Thames corridor.

Redrow director of regeneration John Ireland, appointed to head up the team, said: "In Essex we will be concentrating on large, mixed-use schemes, where urban renaissance can be achieved through quality of design, community integration and environmental improvement."

Redrow, one of Britain's ten largest building firms, has not previously had a large presence in Essex, concentrating more on the north and west.

Redrow Regeneration will be participating in the first Thames Gateway forum to be held at London's Excel Centre, today.

Visitors will be able to view a model of Redrow's steel-frame house, designed for quick development and minimum disruption to existing communities.