Born by bringing together two individuals with the same passion to provide desirable affordable living space across the UK, ModPods International is starting to play a central role in easing the national housing crisis.
Just Solutions Group was set up in 2007 and CEO Peter Farrelly joined forces with Andy Cornaby in 2017 after they realised they shared the same passion and formed ‘ModPods International’ to create the key USPs to exceed client expectations and went on to design six unique architype pods to help satisfy the UK’s demographic challenges.
• Compliant and accredited
• Offsite factory built
• Lift, load and lowered in place
• Click and use services – same day occupation
• Desirable to live in
• Spacious, airy and modern
• Affordable.
Off the back of an existing relationship with Birmingham City Council, Andy Cornaby worked in conjunction with Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust (BMHT) to develop a prototype, a twostorey, two-bedroom pod that exceeds NDSS minimum living space standards as set by Homes England to house up to four people.
Andy and his team in conjunction with BMHT finally secured the prototype design that lead to planning permission approval and the transformation of a piece of derelict wasteland in the heart of Hockley, Birmingham. Transforming this piece of land and lowering into position a state-of-the-art ModPod allowed the transfer of a tenant and his son to downsize from a four-bedroom family home to a two-bedroom property.
The BMHT Heaton Street project for Birmingham City Council (BCC), consisted of a two storey, twobedroom pod. The ground floor was delivered and sited at 12.30pm followed immediately by the first floor, docked, services instantly connected and by 4pm ready to occupy. Delivered with all the furniture already installed and kindly donated by ‘Family Fund’.
Received with excitement by Steve Dalloway and his development team from BCC who had been instrumental throughout the journey of initial design to final placement, the future vision of contemporary modular housing in Birmingham suddenly became reality and later endorsed by Birmingham City Council’s dignitary, councillors, planning committee and Homes England. A proud moment for ModPods and a future secured. With the recent success of the BMHT prototype, BCC now intend to role out variations of the ModPod range across the city and currently have various sites identified and submitted to planning.
ModPods International with the combination of Peter Farrelly and Andy Cornaby’s vast knowledge and understanding of the social housing sector, allowed the detail of the design to meet current legislation and compliance, maximise thermal insulation qualities and meet the needs of the BMHT design specification and asset management profile. ModPods are ranked highly by Homes England and have gained enormous interest globally as a solution to the housing needs of local authorities, housing associations, private developers and charitable organisations, offering an affordable and rapid solution to their housing shortages.
“No one should be living week in week out in cramped bed and breakfast conditions very often with just the clothes on their back,” says Andy Cornaby. “They should be offered the same opportunity as anyone else to thrive in a secure and habitable space, that offers individuals and families the capacity to focus on their futures and create stable lives for themselves.”
Whilst ModPods were initially designed to supply a solution to the national social housing shortage, the need for affordable living space is equally as desirable to the private housing market, ModPods are available to the private sector and mortgageable via BOPAS accreditation that offers them a maximum two mortgage terms of 60 years and offers a wide rage of variations and optional extras, allowing social housing and house buyers the opportunity to create their own style of pod to fit their needs.
In order to tackle fuel poverty, ModPods offer the optional extra of applying photovoltaic self-adhesive technology that offers the resident cost-free electricity and the option to store power and sell any excess back to the grid, rendering the pod completely energy self-sufficient and having an ‘A’ energy efficiency rating. The pods have attracted interest from social landlords, major developers, the leisure industry and global charitable and disaster recovery organisations to provide rapid housing solutions that can be promptly built and quickly despatched and sited, housing thousands of homeless spanning from the UK to war-torn third world countries that desperately need homes, support local employment and infrastructure to rebuild lives and allow communities to thrive.
ModPods unique click and use services option allows the ModPod to be delivered and ready to occupy the same day. By working closely with service providers ModPods International have created a unique way of having the power and water supply – and broadband if required – ready and accessible on the day the pod is sited. Having a pod that is built completely offsite to completion allows us to pre-prepare the foundation,
infrastructure including services ducting and finished landscape including lawns and shrubs, complete, prior to the pod being delivered.
This eliminates site theft that happens regularly on building sites, moving the tenant in the same day allows the property to be secure from day one. ModPods International whilst based in Coventry have no intention of maintaining a single base for manufacture, and depending on volume will set up pop-up factory manufacturing hubs around the country to satisfy demand, supporting the local economy, reduce transport costs, maintaining affordability and support local employment and social enterprise.
