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EXPLORING CURRENT THINKING IN OFFSITE 29 What do you think are the biggest three barriers of building offsite?


frequently reported barriers by our respondents, with 63 per cent stating that they do not think there is enough support available from Government to take up modern methods of construction. Other concerns included a lack of incentives (30 per cent), the insurance or warranties necessary (26 per cent), the design process (31 per cent), skills (40 per cent), supply (21 per cent), and regulation (17 per cent).


SOLUTION ADVANTAGE


In order for housebuilders and developers to overcome these barriers, and for offsite technologies to become more commonplace across UK housing, it is important to delve deeper into the advantages that MMC can offer. Below are some of these benefits, and the ways in which


each are able to address some of the many issues facing the sector at present.


SPEED AND SUPPLY Government estimates have put the number of new homes needed in England at up to 345,000 per year. Despite this, multiple Government manifestos since 2015 have pushed the political imperative to target 300,000 new homes per year – with the Government elected in 2019 pledging to do so by the “mid-2020s.” Even this seemingly inadequate target is not being


achieved as yet, with the total housing stock in England increasing by around 50,000 homes short of the target – and therefore almost 100,000 under the estimated housing need. It is clear that both the Government and the housing sector must find ways to increase the pace of new homes.


When it comes to MMC, building a home offsite has often been said to reduce construction times by around 30 per cent, and total development by up to 50 per cent. This is only improving, with modular builders ilke Homes claiming that at optimum capacity a volumetric housing factory can make a home every two hours, and a single crane can install up to six houses in a day. While not all forms of MMC offer quite this level of velocity, almost all methods reduce construction time to some degree. Somewhat more traditional timber frame builds for example delegate much of the build to offsite manufacturers, reducing the time on site by an estimated three months as compared with brick and mortar projects. The vast majority of respondents, 73 per cent, cited speed


as one of their top three benefits to building offsite – the highest rated among our respondents – and 68 per cent reported that housing supply could be positively affected by modular technologies, plus 21 per cent very positively.


COST Rising unaffordability levels have been cited as one of the key causes of the UK's housing crisis. According to data from the Bank of England, the average house now costs more than eight times average earnings, rising from around four times earnings in the mid 1990s, and home ownership rates have fallen by 62-64 per cent in the past five years – levels not seen since the early 80s. As stated earlier, MMC housing is faster to build, thus


reducing labour costs, and the precise nature of modular methods can reduce wastage across the board, in turn reducing costs – so modern methods of construction could be a key tool in saving costs and increasing affordability in the UK.


The statistics from the survey backed this up; when asked if they believed their company could save money building homes offsite, 72 per cent of respondents agreed, and 80 per


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