A survey carried out by weekly magazine Inside Housing shows that 15 out of 17 major housing associations intend to increase their use of offsite construction, including timber frame and modular builds.
The 17 associations together have a development pipeline of 22,544 homes over the next three years, for which 57% will utilise “offsite techniques”.
This is an increase of more than 10% in comparison to the 2011/15 figures when the same landlords were planning to use offsite methods on 46.3% on a smaller pipeline of 20,740 homes.
One respondent, Spectrum Housing Group, is intending to use offsite techniques on 1,035 of the 1,725 homes it starts in the next three years.
Most of the associations cited advantages in terms of cost, build quality, speed of delivery, fewer weather delays, improved energy-in-use and smaller carbon footprints.
But Walsall Housing Group, which is using offsite manufacturing on just 100 out of the 1,400 homes it is planning, said that modern methods of construction had “not been embraced by the mainstream developer market”, and that there was ‘‘no clear government policy or funding incentive” to use them.
And New Charter Housing Trust called on developers to make offsite products more accessible.
Business secretary Vince Cable meets apprentice Jagjeet Singh Panesar, and Laing O’Rourke’s Ray O’Rourke at London’s Elephant & Castle
The report comes a week after the Department for Business Innovation and Skills awarded a £22.1m grant to a consortium led by Laing O’Rourke to develop advanced methods for the manufacture of homes, buildings and infrastructure.
Stephen Trusler, Laing O’Rourke’s accommodation sector leader, said: “The investment is potentially great news for our ability to help address the UK’s housing capacity gap of some 60,000 to 100,000 homes annually, with advanced offsite manufacturing and digital engineering speeding up the provision of affordable, high-quality accommodation.”
WSP, Arup Associates, and BIM consultant Fulcro are also partnering with Laing O’Rourke in the four-year initiative, which will see the group invest in new facilities and provide digital training.
Business secretary Vince Cable said: “To have any chance of meeting the demand for affordable homes, the industry must embrace the latest house building technologies and techniques. That’s why I’m delighted to grant £22.1m of funding to help the sector do just that.”
The University of Cambridge, University of Sheffield and BRE are also advising on the project, which includes supply chain partners Airedale, Armstrong, Beckhoff, Crane, Apex, Grundfos, Hamworthy, British Gypsum, SIG and Thorn.
