n By Hajera Blagg
Goodfellow claims that these timber- framed homes are not only faster and cheaper to build, they’re also more environmentally sustainable. Crucially, they do not require highly skilled labour to put together.
Unite Construction national industrial sector committee (NISC) chair Billy Parry remains sceptical.
“You can’t stop progress,” Billy acknowledged.
“And with new opportunities, it will create new types of jobs, which we welcome. But the concept of kit-form houses has been tried before, and there have been significant problems with many of them.”
Billy referenced councils using prefabricated homes to building council housing over the years. Many of them ended up having serious mould and damp problems.
As recently as 2023 modular homes hit the headlines when housing developments in Selby, North Yorkshire and Bristol were found to have mould problems.
The problem was traced to modular homes manufactured by Legal & General
whose parts were heavily contaminated with black mould while being stored
before on-site installation.
Billy also worries about the longevity of these homes, whose materials may not be as durable.
Speaking to buildingWORKER walking down a street in Liverpool, Billy said, “Some of these houses here are more than 150 years old. And they’ll likely go on to stand for another 150 years or longer. With these timber-framed homes – sure, they may be cheaper to build, they may be completed more quickly – but in the end, you always get what you pay for.”
Indeed, most modular timber- framed homes are given structural guarantees of only 60 years,
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Teach them the dovetails and the scarf joints, as well as the technology. If we just give people a spanner and nuts and bolts and tell them to put this house together, where’s the ambition in that?
Billy Parry, Unite construction NISC chair
compared with homes built using traditional masonry, which can remain structurally sound for well over a century.
Still, a definite draw of timber- framed modular homes is the use of materials that are more sustainable. Timber acts as a carbon store, meaning it removes carbon from the environment and safely stores it, while traditional masonry, and the waste used in its manufacture, is a significant carbon emitter.
While Billy said he welcomes initiatives to reduce carbon emissions in the sector, he notes that we must factor in the bigger picture too. Responding to the fact that Britain lags behind other developed countries in timber- framed construction, Billy notes that other countries in North America or northern Europe, for example, may simply have much easier access to timber.
The research bears this out – at present, Britain is the second largest importer of timber in the world, importing a whopping 80 per cent of the timber it consumes.
The environmental cost of importing timber – and all the emissions that entails – significantly tempers timber’s current sustainability in Britain.
What’s most concerning for Billy, however, is the social cost of potentially losing the traditional skilled trades to AI, robotics and the deskilling involved in modular home construction. You just can’t put a price tag on that loss, he argues.
29 unite buildingWORKER Spring 2026
“I’ve always believed if you give a young person the opportunity to learn a skilled trade, you give them a sense of belonging, a sense of pride and a sense of ambition,” he said. “When I was a young person working alongside joiners, I looked up to them. I thought, ‘I want to do that, too’.
“I went from being a school leaver with no direction and no future to a dependable adult with a steady, skilled job and most of all, ambition. To do away with the traditional trades would be a huge mistake.”
Ultimately, Billy believes there must be a middle ground to be sought in building the homes of the future. AI and modular homes can play a part in achieving the government’s 300k-per- year housebuilding targets, but we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
“I don’t see why we can’t do both – harness technology and sustainable materials to build homes faster but also invest in apprenticeships that teach the traditional trades,” he said.
Billy urges both government and businesses to think hard about the future – one where young people are given hope, and the opportunity to learn a variety of skills.
“Teach them the dovetails and the scarf joints, as well as the technology. If we do away with the skilled trades in these modular homes; if we just give people a spanner and nuts and bolts and tell them to go ahead and put this house together, where’s the ambition in that? Where’s the pride?”
Chris Radburn
Craig Maclean
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