Legal & General (L&G) expects to install its first factory-built modular homes on site in the second quarter of 2018.
A spokesperson told Inside Housing that the firm had entered pre-production phase in the factory and is currently in a testing phase of the manufacturing process, carrying out production trials.
It expects to launch the product at the end of the first quarter of the year, in April, and to deliver and install the first homes on site before the end of June.
L&G’s offsite housebuilding factory near Leeds, the largest in Europe, has seen delays since its launch in February. It had initially hoped to complete its first homes in the summer of 2016 and to have “a large pipeline” in place by early 2017.
It took until June 2017 to deliver the first prototype home to housing association RHP, shortly after the appointment of Rosie Toogood, formerly of Rolls Royce, as the chief executive of L&G’s home development arm, L&G Homes.
However shortly after the Autumn Budget Nigel Wilson, chief executive of L&G, announced the firm’s intention to “accelerate” its housebuilding efforts in light of reforms from the government – such as a presumption in favour of offsite construction which is to be adopted in 2019.
The move was announced as L&G secured a large site in Berkshire with planning consent for 1,500 homes, but the company is still keeping confidential the locations of the first homes from its modular factory.
The 580,000 sq ft factory, which L&G invested £55m to build, has the capacity to build 3,000 houses or 4,500 flats a year.
Recent weeks have seen increasing interest in offsite construction, with major housebuilder Berkeley acquiring a site for a factory and modular builder Low Carbon Construction telling Inside Housing it is aiming to deliver 10,000 homes a year from 2019 with temporary ‘onsite’ factories.
Meanwhile, the first pilot scheme of homes built under the offsite partnership between Your Housing Group and a Chinese state-owned construction firm is expected very soon.
Original link - Inside Housing
