A new white paper from Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions has claimed a more joined-up approach to offsite construction could be key to tackling the UK’s affordable housing shortage.
That is the consensus of a group of social housing experts who took part in a series of roundtable events, which has now been collated in a resource entitled How Should Off-Site Construction be part of the Affordable Housing Toolkit? which has been published on Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions’ new online Knowledge Hub.
Attendees from organisations including social landlords, affordable housing architects, and investors shared the challenges they faced in building new affordable homes and maintaining existing stock.
Many of the experts said components made offsite, such as timber and steel frames, panelised wall systems, and ready-made structural components, were already being widely used in affordable housing developments.
The attendees acknowledged the potential of offsite construction methods for increasing the pace and volume of building, while also bringing benefits of lower environmental impact and warmer homes.
Colin Lafferty, senior development manager for social housing provider Torus, said, “I’m constantly talking to my team about MMC and what new innovations are in the market. What else is out there? We need to keep that education going. Hopefully, just normalising the idea of zero bills for residents or near zero bills, the sustainability of the products that we’re creating.”
However, there remains uncertainty around accessibility to new technologies from a supply chain more geared to traditional methods. Helen Spencer, executive director of growth for the Great Places Housing Group, explained, “A challenge for us is how we engage with our principal contractor supply chain to maximise use of offsite solutions, which we believe to be part of the answer, particularly with sustainability in mind. We need to support them to adapt their processes to accommodate some of those materials, some of those products. We are looking at how can we work more closely with the supply chain to breakdown some of those barriers and how that might help us tackle the costs more directly.”
Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions says the challenge is to work with industry stakeholders to understand how offsite construction can meet their needs and help overcome issues with funding, planning, and finding suitable solutions.
Will Jones, marketing and digital director, Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions, said, “We wanted to better understand the role offsite construction could play, and indeed is already playing, in helping to provide more affordable housing. The insight and firsthand experience we got from this engagement process was incredibly valuable and often eye-opening.
“We asked the question How should offsite construction be part of the Affordable Housing Toolkit? The answer we got was It already is… but it could potentially play a bigger role if persistent challenges are addressed.
“These are barriers that manufacturers like Saint-Gobain can help address by working more closely with other stakeholders. But there are also structural issues that ripple throughout the industry that require top-down support and a change in the way offsite construction is perceived.”
The whitepaper is available to download at https://offsite.co.uk/whitepaper-how-should-off-site-construction-be-part-of-the-affordable-housing-toolkit/
