Landmark deal worth £420 million to speed up UK housing delivery

Created: Jul 18 2018

A new joint government-industry sector deal worth £420 million is set to transform the construction industry in the UK by deploying innovative technologies aimed at building new homes quicker. This is a welcome initiative considering the widening gap between demand and supply of homes, especially in London.

 

A recent announcement by the government has set the tone for a ‘bytes and mortar’ revolution in the housing sector to use digital design for homes. It will be suitably complemented by offsite manufacturing to transform construction of quality homes. In the process, this deal is expected to provide the much-needed impetus to the government’s ambition to deliver 1.5 million new homes by 2022.

This unique industry-government partnership for the next three years is also aimed at making homes energy efficient. It will support the ‘Clean Growth Grand Challenge mission’ to halve the energy use of new build homes by 2030, helping families reduce their utility bills in the long-term.

The stakeholders of the housing and infrastructure are addressing several core issues impacting speedy delivery of homes. For instance, investment will go into new manufacturing technologies and offsite manufacturing, thereby helping cut the time taken to deliver new build homes by 50 per cent.

Digital techniques will be deployed at all phases of design to deliver better results during the construction and operation of buildings.

Offsite manufacturing technologies will be promoted to help minimise the wastage, inefficiencies and delays that affect onsite construction, and enable production to happen in parallel with site preparation – speeding up construction and reducing disruption.

Moreover, the government will support the adoption of new construction technologies and techniques developed through the Transforming Construction programme.

As housing is vital to the economic success of cities and regions and the earning power of individuals, the government has committed to support the sector financially. The government will provide more than £15 billion of new financial support for housing over the next 5 years, taking total financial support to at least £44 billion till 2023.

It intends to support innovative plans to build additional homes where they are needed. The government will work with housing clients, developers and their supply chains, to ensure that the development and commercialisation of technologies and digital building designs help deliver the housing objectives.

Strawberry Star is already aligned with some of the objectives of the government on speeding up delivery of homes. For our maiden residential-led scheme in London’s commuter belt Luton, we are adapting traditional building techniques and elements of modular construction to build quality homes at lower capital values for home-buyers, especially first-time buyers.

latest stories

INSIGHTS