Could offsite construction solve the housing crisis? – BSA

The Building Societies Association is calling for a new wave of offsite construction to be used by the UK housing industry to help solve the chronic shortage of housing.

Its new report Laying the Foundations for Modern Methods of Construction suggests utilising offsite construction methods could provide high quality affordable homes at a faster rate than is currently possible.

With the population set to increase by 9.7 million over the next 25 years, the BSA said “radical solutions” needed to be explored to solve the housing crisis.

Dick Jenkins, BSA chairman, said: “To get there we rely on Government to lead the way and break the cycle in relation to new construction technologies. At present supply is so low that lenders can’t routinely lend on these properties because they don’t fully understand the risks, and builders won’t build more of this type of home because mortgage lending is in limited supply as is home insurance.

“For the sake of consumers, these types of building technology must become as conventional and mainstream as brick and block has been for the past 100 years. If we do it could be a game-changer.”

Offsite construction – also known as Modern Methods of Construction – involves manufacturing and pre-assembling large sections of a building ‘offsite’ in a factory.

There are numerous types of offsite construction, ranging from permanent modular buildings through to bathroom pods.

Commonly associated with the prefab boom of the 1940s, the quality of offsite construction has improved by leaps and bounds since then. Homes are architecturally interesting, structurally solid and energy efficient.

The BSA called for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors to produce standardised guidance for its members specifying how valuations are made for mortgage purposes.

It also said the Government had the chance to bring the housing industry together by leading the way on its own developments, such as Northstowe near Cambridge.

It also recommended the introduction of a programme to improve the image of offsite properties which are now “robust, visually impressive and cheaper to run than their traditionally built counterparts”.

Richard Bacon MP, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on self-build, custom and community housebuilding and placemaking, said: “Although there are numerous Government schemes to help first-time buyers buying their first property, we have not cracked the problem surrounding housing in the UK – it spreads across all tenures. If we are to produce enough houses, we need big changes.

“This area has seen huge changes in recent years. Bespoke houses which cost almost nothing to heat and that are made-to-measure for each customer, configured on a laptop and then delivered within weeks – erected on serviced plots with the broadband, water, electricity and gas already in place – are a reality now, but not yet at scale.

“Buyer demand is already growing and will grow further as MMC becomes a conventional choice, adding an effective additional measure to tackle the housing crisis.”

Recent research by Yorkshire Building Society found that the UK has missed its house building targets by a whopping 1.2 million since 2004.

In 2015, the government set the UK house building target by pledging to build one million homes over its five-year term. However, only 142,890 homes were built in 2015, 29% less than the 200,000 homes needed to reach the one million target by 2020.

George Clarke, architect and presenter of Channel 4’s George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces, said: “The future of mass housebuilding in the UK relies on a combination of creative design with advanced and innovative building technologies.

“The house building industry is still stuck in the dark ages compared with other industries such as the automotive industry, the aviation industry and telecommunications. Offsite home manufacturing is the only way we are going to build the number of homes we need, that are affordable and of a quality that is acceptable for future generations.”

Planning constraints

Many experts place the blame for the housing crisis firmly at the door of the planning system, which is seen as too restrictive and inflexible.

In a separate report, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said the Government needs to do more to free up brownfield and unused land to create more affordable homes.

Its latest research found that 59% of surveyors believe that planning constraints was the main factor standing in the way of new housing development schemes, while 33% said the government should force developers to use land that is currently being land-banked.

Rics said that distinction should be made between developers who need a certain amount of land in their development pipeline and the “far fewer number of speculators who are sitting on land only to sell on at a profit needed to be made”.

To make this difference clear it is recommending owners should develop the land within two to three years of receiving permission to build or sell to those willing and capable to build on it.

According to the Economic Affairs Committee, the government needs to increase its house building target by at least 50% in order to meet demand.

The House of Lords Select Committee said in a report earlier this year that 300,000 homes need to be built each year to tackle the housing crisis.

It suggested that local authorities and housing associations must be freed to build substantial numbers of homes for rent and for sale.

It said restraints on local authority borrowing should be lifted and that “decisive steps” should be taken to make use of surplus publicly owned land for building on.

Local authorities should also be given the power to increase planning fees and charge council tax on developments that are not completed within a set time period.