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House builders look for construction step-change

A Chartered Institute of Building [CIOB] product story

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Jun 9, 2005

Modern methods of construction have a substantial contribution to make in raising the industry's output in line with the growing need for affordable housing.

The Barker 33 Group set up by the United Kingdom Government and the house building industry in response to Kate Barker's report on Housing Supply has come to the conclusion that modern methods of construction have a substantial contribution to make in raising the industry's output in line with the growing need for affordable housing.

The group's final report has not yet been published, but their task was to examine the numerous barriers that Kate Barker mentioned as preventing the industry from improving its volume and rate of production.

Against that, as the inquiry discovered, are factors such as the perception of cost of offsite production and assembly being generally higher than that of traditional construction, combined with the lack of a record of positive achievement.

But with the decline of traditional skills such as those of carpenter and bricklayer on-site construction is losing the edge of competitiveness.

A new movement is growing up determined to remove the long-standing obstacles which have stood in the way of modern methods of construction.

The Building Research Establishment is now actively encouraging innovation.

It has also produced a loss prevention standard which when it comes into operation next year is expected to increase the uptake of MMC by allaying fears about the durability and resilience of modern methods.

So it is no wonder that the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was delighted with his visit to BRE.

For all the promise of the advance of technology however, the builders themselves are acutely aware that the shortfall in output cannot be met simply by innovation and faster rates of construction.

As the leader of the Barker 33 Group said at the Offsite 2005 event, land and planning reform are still essential to resolving the issue of house-building demand.

But if there is an inquiry proceeding into that as the principal barrier to raising output, remarkably little has since been heard about it.