Unlike the US which sees little help from the Federal Government fast-tracking modular construction, the UK modular industry is finding a lot to like about what is happening in modular construction there.
The UK housing market is at a tipping point where it could transform into the most advanced housing manufacturing market in the world in under a decade delivering in excess of 75,000 new homes via modular housing. “Make UK Modular” members’ factories can produce a new home every two hours.
These homes are near defect free with 97% less embodied carbon than traditional builds. Make Modular members have already invested more than US $600M in new factories, cutting-edge processes, and state-of-the-art technology.
The Make UK Modular movement has found that planning permission should be fast-tracked for modular housing to create homes 50% faster and 4,000 jobs in left-behind areas of UK
Make UK Modular issued an analysis that found:
- Modular homes cost 55% less to heat than the average UK home and 32% less than traditional new builds, delivering savings of up to £800 a year for a three-bedroomed family home
- Modular homes are built 50% faster to make from start to finish than bricks and mortar homes
- Building with modular can halve emissions when building a home, cutting the amount of CO2 produced as a result of construction by up to 83%
- Modular manufacturers have already built factories in post-industrial provincial towns or cities, creating over 3,000 jobs, and delivering £700m of investment to low-growth, low-employment areas
- Government should fast-track the planning route for modular homes and commit to using modular for 20% of its affordable housing program to double new jobs overnight
- Modular home construction is both more efficient and kinder to the environment with substantially less waste, 90% down on materials wastage than traditional builds
- Modular building heavily reduces the amount of transport access needed for building sites, with 80% fewer vehicle movements to sites and therefore far less local disruption and pollution of the environment
Britain’s modular construction companies are moving at speed to deliver widescale change in the housing market unseen in the UK for generations, according to new research published today by Make UK Modular. ‘Greener, Better, Faster: Modular’s Role in Solving the Housing Crisis’, shows that while innovation has left the construction industry largely untouched till now, precision-engineered homes, factory-built in areas where employment is required and delivered to regions of the UK where housing is scarce, are set to revolutionize the sector and help solve Britain’s growing housing crisis.
Factory engineering means modular homes can be built to consistently high sustainability standards, delivering savings of 55% on energy consumption compared to the average UK home and costing 32% less to heat than a traditional new build. This translates to savings of up to £800 a year for a three-bedroomed family home, and energy reduction rises to 60% for single or two-person households living in smaller properties. Record spending by modular construction companies in Research and Development accounts for 30% of all R&D across the whole construction sector. This investment is set to deliver even more energy-efficient homes in the coming months at a time households are struggling with an unprecedented cost of living crisis.
There are a number of zero-cost interventions Government could make to maximise growth in modular housing. These include:
- Sustainability: Enhance house-building sustainability by introducing more a robust commitment to and targets for net-zero
- Scale: Dedicate 40% of the Affordable Homes Programme to modular, and 50% of this to volumetric modular
- Planning: Create a fast-track planning route for net-zero homes
- Land: Government to require a minimum percentage of it’s land bank to be allocated for modular homes
- Leveling Up: Create a modular capacity strategy linking new factory locations, high housing demand areas, and leveling up priority regions.
ONE MODULAR CODE
If only some organization would back a Federal Single Code for modular construction like HUD has for manufactured homes, this could bring modular construction into a prominent place on every homeowner and developer’s radar.
One argument I’ve heard for not doing this is that homebuyers and developers would confuse a single code for modular construction with manufactured housing.
With HUD code houses representing 10% of the housing market and modular being at 2.5%, wouldn’t you think the HUD crowd would be the ones not wanting to be confused with modular?
But as I’ve said before, I probably won’t live long enough to see it.
Gary Fleisher is the Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and Offsite Builder magazine. Email at [email protected]
