The UK Government's 'unrealistic' targets for Housing

Solving the housing crisis

The government states significant awareness for a desperate need to modernise the way we build to help solve our housing crisis, however we are no way near sufficient support despite attempts with initiatives, including Homes England.

House prices driven upwards simply by the fact lack of available housing increasing headache for first-time buyers to get on the property ladder coupled with the instability of pending elections, Brexit and unrealistic land prices. It will take open minds, time, investment with genuine collaboration with UK delivery partners to succeed. International joint ventures need to be thought through carefully for a sustainable impact creating much needed infrastructure around these homes many of which on a 'build to rent' lease model working in collaboration with LA's.

We need urgent genuine participation from Local Authorities to relax planning, having met with a small handful myself I am not persuaded their personal agenda is aligned anywhere near to deliver housing at the rate promised by government coupled with an apparent leaning themselves clearly towards working with smaller local OSM's to deliver prototypes which whilst sounds great for the local economy (I am all for that) is not realistic to build thousands of homes needed. Crippled by some might consider an 'unworkable procurement process' - over & above those concepts/prototypes LA's cannot expect delivery on a mass scale without serious investment/production capacity/scale-ability in place. Larger very much proven & cash rich overseas companies are expected to compete head on with smaller favoured local UK factories which prototypes aside is surely pointless if the local firm cannot deliver to scale? Building a prototype doesn't mean the intended structure can be permitted or even built, a compliance & deployment roadmap needs to be created first, then a realistic cash flow study based on the potential barriers to deployment. To be successful OSM's need to have serious financial backing, patience & ultimate discipline, considering the virtues of standardisation - the industry has destroyed many UK firms unfortunately that couldn't sustain the 'Modular Roller Coaster' by attempting to become all things to all people.

Our industry is surrounded by NDA’s. As a result, many OSM's are facing similar challenges without access to solutions that others have already found

The UK manufacturing of modular homes are unable to meet with the current wishes set by government, the reason why the use of modular fabrication eases the workload on the basis tradesman are running short, hence why the use semi-skilled labour, & specialist tradesmen to sign off completed modules. Currently the UK market is reported to be booming with timber frame methods to assist with achieving targets set. 3D Volumetric is one source to assist the market shortage amongst other methods.

Savings in modular construction benefit in the infrastructure from which the modular’s final resting place. I.E. foundations would be 5-10% savings. Prelims 6-8. The key points are design/services/infrastructure are in place before the modules, design commences earlier than traditional methods & once the General Arrangement Drawings (GA's) are 'frozen' modules can be produced, no changes after this point otherwise expect delays. Decisions need to be made far earlier to adopt modular due to the design process, avoid designing in traditional build and attempting to convert to modular.

The way to help towards solving our crisis is to work together in alliance with those that know how, that have been ahead of the curve for decades & financially robust to support scalable substantial yet realistic housing targets. There could easily be factories set up in the UK linked to overseas headquarters employing UK locals on the basis of semi-skilled labour combined with experts & training. Academies for the UK could be inbuilt in to the factory supported by government. Off-Site is not a fix for the shortage of construction managers. To be both faster and better quality than traditional construction, OSM requires managers that are both more skilled and more disciplined.

Numerous reports have been commissioned which spell it out clearly what needs to change and we would very much welcome those at the top in our government to visit our factory supply chain across the world to see how they are in a position to help towards solving our crisis.

Westminster has pledged that 300,000 new homes will be built every year by the mid-2020s

The number of new builds in 2017/18 standing at just 195,290. While apparently 2% higher than the previous equivalent period, the growth rate before that was 15%, showing a slowdown in homebuilding. Overseas OSM's are decades ahead building various forms of Off-Site technology including 3D Volumetric and Panelised systems in Europe indeed the United States, Japan, China, UAE etc. The overseas 'OSM super powers' dwarf the majority of our 'cottage industry' modular factories aside of 4 key UK factories full to production capacity.

Using latest technology there are an impressive multitude of mega factories in existence, indeed 3 factories being built over the next 18-24 months costing 100's of millions of Euros with government support in the form of Free Enterprise Zones, we are aware of in Lithuania alone with differing technology wishing to joint venture with local authorities, private investors & government investment initiatives. We have suppliers worldwide including the Baltics, Belarus & the UAE keen to launch in to the UK and we can help facilitate this introduction, to build on a major scale.

There is a myth that Modular is cheaper than traditional build and with no set agreeable data in existence in the UK as yet property developers, investors, main contractors and asset managers remain in the dark. The benefits are speed, quality, improved rate of return on investment (IRR) for investment and less negative impact to the environment.