£65,000 Prefab Homes Go Into Production

The UK is entering a new era of prefab homes with the opening of a Yorkshire factory that will build fully-fitted three-bedroom homes with a price tag as low as £65,000. Eight houses fitted with kitchens and bathrooms will roll off the production line every day in Knaresborough, to be loaded on to lorries for delivery across the country. Experts have hailed it a revolution in British housebuilding that would slash the 40 weeks it could take to build a traditional home to just 10 days. The factory cost excludes the cost of land, on-site assembly and connecting the home to services, which could double or triple the final price. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/30/uk-housebuilding-revolution-65000-prefab-homes-go-into-production

Off-The-Peg Homes Bid To Ease UK Housing Crisis

Hundreds of 26 sq m modular homes built to order at factory near Leeds to be rented out at lower cost than flatsharing. The first production run from a vast new factory outside Leeds began this week – with timber delivered at one end, and just a week later a fully furnished one-bed flat popping out the other. Legal & General Homes is promising to build thousands of flats and houses a year at the revolutionary, and highly secretive, factory, and delivered around the country on the back of trucks. Is this the solution to the housing crisis – or a new age of soulless prefabs for rabbit hutch Britain? Read more on the Guardian website.

Work Starts On Prefab Homeless Housing

Work is to begin on a temporary housing scheme for homeless families in Reading. The 28 prefabricated homes will provide emergency housing for people who would otherwise be forced to stay in bed and breakfast accommodation. Reading Borough Council said it had about 120 families staying in guest houses at the end of 2016. The development, on the site of a former mobile home park, will consist of seven timber-clad blocks of four units, two storeys high, a children's play area, car parking and bike sheds. Each unit will have two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen-diner and a living room. Read more on the BBC.

Builders Turn To Bolt-Together Homes

The prospect of Brexit choking off the supply of EU workers is reshaping Britain's homebuilding industry, with big companies increasingly looking to factory-manufacture houses in sections that can be slotted together on-site with minimal labour. Many of Britain's leading housebuilders, including Berkeley, Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Your Housing, told Reuters they were either planning new developments of prefabricated homes or considering doing so. This represents something of a turnaround in a country where "prefabs" have borne a strong and lingering stigma dating back to the 1940s when Winston Churchill ordered tens of thousands of cheap, flimsy, ugly units to be built to address a shortage housing after World War II. Read more on Yahoo News.

Builders Turn To Bolt-Together Homes In Brexit Britain

Many of Britain's leading housebuilders have told Reuters they were either planning new developments of prefabricated homes or considering doing so. This represents something of a turnaround in a country where "prefabs" have borne a strong and lingering stigma dating back to the 1940s when Winston Churchill ordered tens of thousands of them to address a shortage of housing after World War Two. The change is being fuelled by fears over a labour shortage in the construction industry, which relies heavily on European workers like carpenters, joiners and bricklayers. About 12 percent of its 2.1 million employees come from abroad, mainly the EU, according to official figures.  Read more on the Reuters website.

Tens Of Thousands Of Quick-Build Homes Set To Tackle Housing Crisis

Britain is to get tens of thousands of new quick-build homes as the Government scrambles to hit its target of building a million new homes in Britain by the end of the decade. Sajid Javid told Sky News that "ready to go" homes - from factory built to custom-made apartment blocks - will be a key component of his housing white paper to be published this month as he looks for new schemes to hit his eye-watering target. The communities secretary has been on a fact-finding mission in the Netherlands and Germany this week to examine a new generation of prefab homes in what is set to be the biggest revival of this type of housing since the post-second world war reconstruction effort. Read more on Sky News.

Wave Of Prefab Homes Planned To Tackle UK Housing Crisis

Ministers are planning a new wave of prefabs in a drive to solve Britain’s housing crisis. More than 100,000 pre-packed modular homes could be constructed as the government looks at ways to meet its target to provide a million new homes by 2020. A government white paper due out next month will include measures to encourage banks to lend to firms that construct the homes off-site before delivering them to their final destination, the paper said. The initiative recalls the reconstruction drive which followed the second world war as prefabs sprung up across the country as the government sought to house families bombed out of their homes by the Germans. Read more on the Observer website.

Brandon Lewis On Prefabricated Housing: 'Key To The Sector's Future'

Brandon Lewis spoke to MPs at Westminster Hall regarding the issue of prefabricated housing, saying the government was “committed” to the idea. He said the Housing and Planning Bill, recently passed at its second reading, was part of the government’s plan to help prefabricated housing and innovative design. He said: “We are committed to encouraging not only home ownership, but increased housing supply, to make sure that we have more good-quality homes that people can afford to buy and that we support all parts of the housing market and all tenures. The way we do that is equally important. We need to deliver more new, high-quality homes, with well thought out interior design, built quickly and efficiently. We want to see innovation in the house building and construction sector.” Read more on 24dash.