// ARTICLE
A picture of health: why it’s easy to be passionate about the UK’s offsite sector
Confidence in modular and offsite construction has been dented in the last year. But should the challenges faced in delivering volume housebuilding via modern methods of construction (MMC) impact on the positives to be found elsewhere in the sector? Adam Salt, Business Development Manager for A. Proctor Group, reflects on some of the success stories he encounters in a buoyant marketplace.
T
he offsite sector has undoubtedly faced issues – specifically in the housing sector, with a number of high-profile manufacturers ceasing operations in 2023. Specific factors can be attributed to each individual case, though it’s possible to draw some broad conclusions.
Delivering traditional housing developments required organisations to plan for, and finance, a scale of production that isn’t yet there. Those financial risks were compounded by delays in purchasing land and securing planning permissions.
Yet it remains fundamentally true that the speed and quality made possible by MMC is demonstrated every day in the delivery of other buildings. Whether it’s high-rise residential, schools, hospitals, warehouses or prisons, there is real momentum to turn MMC into BAU (business as usual).
UK construction is setting an example that others want to follow
My colleagues and I talk to people all over the world about modular and offsite construction methods. Those conversations have made one thing particularly clear: the UK is pretty good at this!
Some construction companies in the United States, for example, are just starting to grasp the
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potential, and they see the UK almost like pioneers. But that picture isn’t necessarily reflected here at home.
When failures in MMC-delivered housing are reported in the wider media, they continue to link modern housing to the flawed prefab and non- traditional housing of yesteryear. Rather than being elevated by success stories, the sector is instead weighed down by continual comparisons to past failures.
Encouraging positive change from the top down
Arguably the biggest success story is that the wider construction industry has collaborated with the UK government to try and affect positive change. And perhaps the most significant result of that collaboration is the Construction Playbook, published at the end of 2020.
The playbook sets how government will work with industry to deliver public projects more efficiently, with a particular focus on getting projects and programmes “right from the start”. Not only is this a positive in itself, but changes and improvements evidenced in public procurement usually start to become the norm throughout construction.
Promoting the adoption of construction platforms
A key goal of the Construction Playbook is to procure more projects using construction
platforms. These are “standardised and interoperable components and assemblies”, where manufacturers can offer a ‘kit of parts’ for use with a common structural solution. As shorthand, platform construction is oſten compared to modern automotive assembly techniques.
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