The “game-changing” consortium planning to transform offsite construction in the UK has identified a town in Gloucestershire as the likely site for its first housebuilding factory.
Your Housing Group and the Chinese government-linked China National Building Material Company (CNBM) are eyeing a site in the small town of Berkeley with plans to open a factory by the summer.
It has not yet made a final decision on the location of the factory, with sites in the North West also being considered.
Renewable energy technology company Welink, which is also involved in the joint venture, already has a research base in Berkeley, making it an ideal location for the first factory, the new chief executive of the joint venture Stephen Haigh said.
The consortium is hoping to agree co-operation agreements with local authorities, which would see the council agree to provide land for housebuilding in the area, ahead of establishing a factory.
CNBM has plunged £2.5bn into the project, with YHG putting up £250m. The consortium aims to be producing 25,000 homes a year by 2022.
Mr Haigh said after the first factory opens in the summer, it will aim to open one factory a year through to 2022. Each factory will produce an average of 4,000 units per year.
Responding to the deal, David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said: “Hats off to Your Housing Group.
This is potentially game-changing – it demonstrates the huge amount of innovation and ambition this sector has.”
The consortium hopes to build homes for sub-market rent by driving construction costs down to £400 per square metre.
This aim was described as “ambitious” by offsite construction experts.
Professor Mohammed Arif, an offsite construction specialist at the University of Salford, said: “Is £400 achievable? Yes, but it is ambitious.
“The problem is many clients want the properties to look like traditionally built houses and that adds in a lot of cost.”
Dennis Seal, director at consultants DLS Strategic, said: “It depends what elements are being included in the cost analysis. It [£400 per square metre] does sound awfully low, even for offsite – you would have to be looking at really substantial numbers to make that happen.”
In response, Mr Haigh said: “That is an aspirational figure, as we start driving down the cost as much as we can on the back of [CNBM’s] financial strength. The figure [£400 per square metre] is an end game aspiration.”
Original link - Inside Housing
