Seven key MMC moments in 2020
What events shaped the sector this year? And how will they impact 2021?
Welcome to the final edition of Modular Monitor this year.
We’re a day early due to the Christmas break and in a change from the norm, I’m analysing some key MMC events from the last 12 months that could shape 2021.
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UK’s biggest offsite village moves ahead
The UK’s largest village featuring offsite construction got the planning nod in February and started on site in August.
What makes this 406-home development - part of a planned new 10,000-home town north of Cambridge called Northstowe - particularly interesting is the involvement of Japan's biggest housebuilder Sekisui.
The Osaka-based firm is a major global player, which has built around two-and-a-half million homes and worked on projects in the US, Australia, China and Singapore. Japan, along with Sweden, is seen as a world leader in modular housing.
In the UK, Sekisui has a partnership with Manchester’s Urban Splash and government agency Homes England.
All eyes, then, will be on this new development to see what impact Sekisui has.
Can the scheme be a blueprint for major UK residential modular developments?
Modular players help with Covid hospitals and test centres
In a year dominated by Covid-19, UK modular players stepped up to the plate.
In Exeter, Premier Modular installed five single-story modular buildings consisting of 57 steel-framed modules in just four weeks.
Last month, modular specialist Elliott won a deal to build Covid test centres.
With the pandemic still rife and worrying new variants emerging, more Covid-related facilities could be needed.
And in the wider health sector, MMC looks set to play a major role as part of the government’s £2.7bn hospital building programme. In Leeds, for example, a new £500m hospital will have MMC “embedded from the outset”.
Property heavyweights acquire modular firm
The sector has been attracting serious backers for some time now. Legal & General, Ilke Homes and Goldman Sachs-backed Top Hat are among them.
Added to the list this year are two property heavyweights in the form of Robert Whitton, developer and co-founder of Active Asset Investment Management, and former Quintain deputy chief executive Nick Shattock.
In April, Whitton and Shattock’s private equity-backed group Impact Capital acquired modular housing firm Lesko.
At Lesko’s Peterborough factory, the newly-named Impact Modular reportedly hopes to produce 500 homes a year.
The blurb on Impact’s website says it believes:
“The dramatic intervention of COVID-19 will trigger a long-awaited revolution in the development and construction sectors, clearing away years of environmental destruction, waste, cost inefficiency, out-dated practices and a reliance on labour.”
Stirring stuff.
MMC benefits to be analysed in push to boost confidence
MMC is still treated with scepticism by some.
Aiming to tackle this problem, government agency Home England commissioned consultancy Faithful + Gould and its parent company Atkins for a long-term project to assess MMC technologies and “build confidence” in the approach.
The study will monitor the construction of around 1,500 homes at sites across the country over “several years”.
Among the aspects that will be assessed is “cost and pace of build compared to traditional building methods, skills required, safety performance, snagging and defect issues, construction wastage, energy efficiency performance and post-occupation performance”.
Annual updates will be published before a full report once the schemes are complete.
Could this study be MMC’s breakthrough moment? Or, another false dawn?
MMC faces government safety probe
As revealed by Modular Monitor in our debut edition, the government is kicking-off a separate review looking at the “risks” associated with modular construction.
The research project will look at “volumetric construction technology”.
Safety and quality fears continue to dog the sector, with particular concerns among insurance firms.
With the Grenfell Inquiry continuing into next year, building safety will remain high on the agenda. Addressing safety concerns around MMC is vital.
Ministers amplify backing of MMC
Amid a dizzying array of proposals, commitments and promises to ‘build, build, build’ this year, MMC received plenty of name-checks.
The much-anticipated planning white paper talked of supporting “innovative” housebuilders and developers that use MMC.
And the government’s Project Speed, whose details were fleshed out in last month’s National Infrastructure Strategy, promises to “transform the construction sector” with “better use of data and modern methods of construction” to boost productivity.
Earlier this month we got the Construction Playbook which promises to “facilitate the adoption” of MMC.
And under the government’s £11.5bn Affordable Housing Programme, a quarter of homes are expected to use MMC.
Throughout the year, housing secretary Robert Jenrick and housing minister Christopher Pincher littered speeches with MMC mentions as part of a wider aim to build 300,000 new homes a year. Not all MMC of course.
As ever with this government, it will be a case of checking the delivery matches the rhetoric.
But there’s no doubting the government’s belief in MMC to help tackle the housing crisis.
Councils to lead the way with offsite push?
With a council housebuilding revolution still beckoning despite the setback of Covid-19, local authorities can play a vital role in driving offsite use.
We revealed in the last Modular Monitor how one London council is hoping to lead this effort. Others such as Greenwich and Ealing are starting to use MMC on some signifiant schemes.
It also emerged this week that Bristol City Council will go ahead with a 185-home modular scheme this week, with the units being delivered by Legal & General - a welcome fillip for the insurance giant’s modular arm.
But there’s plenty more councils - and housing associations for that matter - that need to be convinced. Can the sector persuade enough to take the plunge with MMC and make it mainstream?
*AND FINALLY…*
Thanks for all the support and positive feedback since the launch of Modular Monitor.
All that remains to be said is: Happy Christmas, stay safe and we’ll be back in the new year.
I’m James Wilmore, a freelance journalist and editor. I cover the built environment and occasionally cycling. This is me here and here
For all enquiries, story ideas and tips, please email: james@modularmonitor.co.uk