The Northern Powerhouse will be Prefabricated and made of Wood

The Prefabricated Timber House: Delivering Quality, Meeting Demand
One-day conference - Sheffield, Tuesday 24 May 2016

Timber campaign organisation, Wood for Good, is hosting a seminar on Tuesday the 24th of May, at Sheffield Hallam University, discussing the role of prefabricated timber houses and how they should be used to overcome the UK’s shortage of homes.

Government ambitions to build one million new homes by 2020 to meet demand in England now amounts to around 250,000 units per year but the annual average number delivered in the 2011-14 period was little more than half this. The actual number of new homes now required to make up for many years of low production is considerably greater.

There are many reasons for the failure to meet targets set by current and previous governments. Demand continues to rise, and one key factors is current speed of delivery. Wood for Good says that it is clear that alternatives to traditional housebuilding needs will be required if government ambitions are to be met.

The organisation’s The Prefabricated Timber House: Delivering Quality, Meeting Demand conference is part of Wood for Good’s spring 2016 conferences programme.  The session will explore new ways timber is suited to modern housebuilding needs. This will include the role and growth of offsite manufacture, and the method’s popularity in providing high-quality solutions to deliver high volumes of new homes. The session will also challenge traditional misconceptions of standardised, repetitive production and demonstrate that OSM is able to offer different design approaches.

The Prefabricated Timber House: Delivering Quality, Meeting Demand will give those involved in the housebuilding industry a chance to learn more about the various hybrid, panellised and volumetric timber-based housing solutions available and how these forms of modern offsite timber construction technology might be applied to the creation of large numbers of new homes in England. It will also look at the benefits of prefabricated timber house production over other forms of building. These include speed and precision of construction, high levels of airtightness and thermal comfort, greener low-energy buildings with minimal carbon footprints, use of renewable materials from certified sustainable sources, and reduced landfill waste from construction.

Craig White, Chairman of Wood for Good, said: “England has an acute shortage of new housing and alternative construction approaches are needed to tackle this urgent challenge if government targets are to be met. Wood is increasingly recognised as the environmentally responsible option and is fast proving itself as the key building material for the modern world.

“The Northern Powerhouse initiative has bumped the already crucial topic of housebuilding up the agenda in the north. By holding a conference on the subject in Sheffield, we will highlight the most up to date timber design and manufacturing technologies available and to stimulate new initiatives that will deliver significant numbers of good quality homes throughout the Northern Powerhouse.”


For further Information contact Peter Wilson, Director Tel: +44(0) 131 554 8643 or email: timberdesigninitiatives@gmail.com