Melissa Bradshaw

Expert Q&A: modular home-building

In-Depth

Could modular home-building help solve the housing crisis and improve the sector’s environmental profile? The Engineer asked a group of industry experts about the opportunities, benefits and challenges of off-site construction

Modular homes are claimed to be upto 50 per cent quicker to build and cost 55 per cent less to heat than a typical brick-built British home.
Modular homes are claimed to be upto 50 per cent quicker to build and cost 55 per cent less to heat than a typical brick-built British home. - Make UK

According to a report published last year (October 2022) by Make UK, factory-built precision-engineered homes could help to both decarbonise the construction sector and solve Britain’s growing housing crisis. The Engineer spoke to a group of experts from across the sector about the potential of off-site construction for new home-building

Meet the experts

Steve Cole,director of Make UK Modular at Make UK

Gill Kelleher, head of energy & housing data insights, BRE Group

Timothy Snelson, director and structural engineer, Arup

Jonny Reid, technical specialist, assembly systems, Manufacturing Technology Centre

Why should we be considering off-site construction for new home-building?

Steve Cole: Put simply because it’s greener, better, and faster. UK housing is in crisis. For more than 40 years we just haven’t built the homes we need leading to increasingly unaffordable rents and house prices. The construction labour force is old, shrinking by more than 120,000 in the last 3 years, and the sector faces robust new low carbon targets.

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