Housing Executive has featured a comment piece from our Director Nick Towe which focuses on how modern methods of construction (MMC) can help build the homes Britain needs.
In the piece Nick explains how we are going to need to look at innovative ways to build new homes if we want to scale up construction.
Here’s the full piece:
In a response to the housing crisis, where the real need is for genuinely affordable homes, the UK Labour Government have set a target to deliver 1.5 million homes over the next three years.
To put the scale of the challenge into perspective, last year only 210,000 new dwellings were completed in the UK. In recent years the peak of homebuilding production was 243,000. Even if we repeat the top performance, we will fall short of the target.
There are many interlocking factors which make housebuilding difficult, some have been discussed at length, such as land supply and planning delays, which are beginning to be addressed by the new Government.
But that is only part of the story. We are going to need to look at innovative ways to build new homes if we want to scale up construction.
Skills shortage!
The construction industry has a shortage of bricklayers, joiners and other skilled workers. Couple this with the large demand for these skills from infrastructure projects like HS2 and you can see we have a capacity issue. The CEO of the Construction Industry Training Board recently told the Financial Times that 152,000 skilled workers would be needed to meet the housebuilding target set by the Government. With overseas recruitment more complex and costly post-Brexit, it is difficult to see how we’ll bridge this labour gap.
Furthermore, the average age of a bricklayer in the UK is 50 years old, this is already creating shortages as skilled labourers are starting to retire.
Put simply, if we want to build the homes we need, relying solely on traditional building methods is a luxury we can no longer afford.
Setbacks caused by volumetric housing failures!
For more than three decades, Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and offsite manufacture have been heralded as solutions to ramping up the production of homes.
On paper, volumetric homes looked like the ideal solution to the housing supply issue. It promised the opportunity to make houses in a factory using automation, standardised quality controls and delivery to site almost ready for occupation. In practice, failures over the last few years show that volumetric struggles with the UK development model. Planning delays impact production continuity, and the scale of investment needed in plant and factory is significant and has led to losses for investors and clients alike.
MMC still has a huge role to play in addressing our need to build new homes, but the recent setbacks faced by volumetric manufacturers, has inevitably damaged the reputation of offsite housing solutions.
How we can build new homes at the rate we need by embracing MMC?
Whilst over the past few years the focus has been on volumetric, some manufacturers have been quietly developing timber panelised systems.
Timber frames are not exactly new, they have been used extensively across the UK, similarly light gauge steel has been around in various guises for many years but now developers and manufacturers are increasingly adopting and adapting these systems.
It’s time to bring panelised systems or the catchily named Category 2 MMC to the fore.
Even basic panellised systems have key advantages:
· Quick and easy to produce
· Limited need for highly skilled labour
· Design flexibility easier to achieve
· Less space and less investment needed to manufacture and store
· Easier to transport and install on tight sites
· Cost comparable with traditional build
However, advanced Cat 2 timber frames offer most of the benefits of volumetric with fewer draw backs. A basic open panel frame, still needs a gang of bricklayers on site, still requires hefty foundations, still embeds tonnes of CO2 in materials, and is only a little faster on site.
Advanced panelised systems are doing away with these limitations, we are already seeing
· Durable cost-effective brick slip systems producing finished walls in the factory
· Windows installed in the factory with minimal transport protection needed
· Pre-servicing of closed panels reducing the need for electricians and plumbers on site whilst enabling robust quality control
· Hybrid systems with pods for bathrooms and utility cupboards
· Flexibility, no need to produce the same 6 house types, enabling MMC homes to meet the requirements of planning and aesthetics
When land is made available, panelised systems will allow us to build at a rate we haven’t seen since the years immediately following the end of World War 2.
The industry needs the right communication to overcome some of the doubts caused by the failures of volumetric housing. We need to shrug the failures off, and to embrace MMC and offsite solutions and get Britian building.
You can read the piece on Housing Executives website here: How MMC can help build the homes Britain needs – Housing Executive
