diff --git a/require-ess/tools/driver.makefile b/require-ess/tools/driver.makefile
index 5ad119fec074b15c999f048742ba968479bf34ca..b3895d9f53334b7a643815ecde0c09bfa8326870 100644
--- a/require-ess/tools/driver.makefile
+++ b/require-ess/tools/driver.makefile
@@ -535,18 +535,11 @@ EPICS_INCLUDES =
 # Add include directory of foreign modules to include file search path.
 #
 # The default behaviour is to start with <module>_VERSION and to select the highest
-# available build number, unless otherwise specified. This is determined with the 
+# available build number, unless a build no. is specified. This is determined with the 
 # shell script build_number.sh included with require.
-#
-# Note that we do not perform this search when building require as
-#  1. require has no dependencies
-#  2. build_number.sh is not installed yet, so ADD_OTHER_INCLUDES complains
-#     when searching EPICS_MODULES (= $(EPICS_BASE))
-
-ifneq ($(strip $(PRJ)),require)
 
 define FETCH_BUILD_NUMBER
-$(shell $(E3_REQUIRE_TOOLS)/build_number.sh $(1) $(2) $($(2)_VERSION))
+$(shell ${MAKEHOME}/build_number.sh $(1) $(2) $($(2)_VERSION))
 endef
 
 define ADD_INCLUDES_TEMPLATE
@@ -554,9 +547,7 @@ INSTALL_INCLUDES += $$(patsubst %,-I${2}/$(1)/%/include,$$(call FETCH_BUILD_NUMB
 endef
 $(foreach m,$(filter-out $(PRJ),$(notdir $(wildcard ${E3_SITEMODS_PATH}/*))),$(eval $(call ADD_INCLUDES_TEMPLATE,$m,$(E3_SITEMODS_PATH))))
 $(foreach m,$(filter-out $(PRJ),$(notdir $(wildcard ${E3_SITEAPPS_PATH}/*))),$(eval $(call ADD_INCLUDES_TEMPLATE,$m,$(E3_SITEAPPS_PATH))))
-$(foreach m,$(filter-out $(PRJ),$(notdir $(wildcard ${EPICS_MODULES}/*))),$(eval $(call ADD_INCLUDES_TEMPLATE,$m,$(EPICS_MODULES))))
-
-endif
+$(foreach m,$(filter-out $(PRJ),$(notdir $(wildcard ${EPICS_MODULES}/*)))   ,$(eval $(call ADD_INCLUDES_TEMPLATE,$m,$(EPICS_MODULES))))
 
 BASERULES=${EPICS_BASE}/configure/RULES