A new state-of-the-art UK-owned volumetric modular manufacturing facility capable of creating more than 1,000 new homes a year has opened up at Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex.
The owner, Futureform, hopes the new facility will capitalise on initiatives announced in the Housing White Paper and usher in a new era of modular build housing that will revolutionise house building and help solve the housing crisis in the UK.
Customers visiting the factory will be able to pick their home just as they would a new car. They can choose from a range of different house types, with life-size show homes on display at the factory.
Futureform plans to invest more than £5m in the new facility and two more assembly plants over the next two years as part of its £450m development programme, creating more than 300 skilled jobs within the new off-site construction plants and roles such as sales and support, engineering, architecture and design, planning, construction and logistics.
Steven Barrett, CEO and managing director of Futureform, said: “We think that the opening of our new facility comes at a critical point for house building in the UK. It is clear that the UK needs more homes and they are not being built quickly enough to keep up with demand.
“We believe, as the government clearly does, that the way forward is diversification of the housing market and we are delighted that they have announced their intention to promote more modular volumetric and factory built homes.
“We hope that any new measures will assist in our partnerships with local authorities and ultimately we hope that this will usher in a new era of affordable home ownership in this country as well as allowing sites to be developed more efficiently and sustainably using our market leading technology.”
Working across London and the south east, Futureform has been building modular homes for more than 10 years and has completed many projects including mixed residential developments, student accommodation and hotels.
All these projects have used Futureform’s innovative volumetric modular building system which is capable of being used in projects of more than 20 stories in height, as it was at a site next to Wembley Stadium.
The Futureform group is now a developer in its own right and currently has a development programme of more than £450m of mixed development projects across the UK in its pipeline.
