London housing crisis needs an OSM solution

With London’s housing crisis becoming ever more grave, authorities and private companies are being urged to find new innovative solutions to the crisis.

The London Assembly Planning Committee has released a new report which suggests pre-fabricated homes would help London construct the 50,000 new homes a year it needs to meet its growing population.

Popular in the seventies, prefabricated housing contributed significantly to supply. Today’s offsite manufactured homes are characterised by high quality, digital design, with precision engineering and high eco-performance, qualities that are desired in today’ housing market.

Offsite homes can be created to suit a wide range of needs, from properties for a growing family, to empty nesters, and single-person households. While the business model also makes OSM homes ideal for rental accommodation at all income levels.

Other benefits of the model include a lightweight construction and shallow foundations that lend themselves to constrained sites, together with good acoustic performance.

And not forgetting the ‘cherry’ on top, of its high-speed construction, seeing OSM developments built and occupied within half the time of conventional buildings.

Less time on site, means less materials and vehicle deliveries, also adding to the eco-perfomance of the structures.

Nicky Gavron AM has published the report ‘Designed, sealed, delivered: The contribution of offsite manufactured homes to solving London’s housing crisis’ on behalf of the London Assembly Planning Committee.

The report’s recommendations to the Mayor include:

• Provide clear and strong leadership in raising the awareness of OSM’s potential.
• Work towards defining and adopting a Manufactured Housing Design Code.
• Look at the potential of using TfL-owned land to stimulate the OSM sector.
• Set up a dedicated OSM-specific procurement framework for London.

Nicky Gavron AM, report author, said: “Meeting London’s housebuilding target is a huge task and traditional construction techniques will only take us so far. Offsite Manufactured Housing is an innovative, forward-looking and exciting way to close the gap. These buildings are high quality and outstanding in terms of performance. Their construction is more environmentally-friendly than traditional construction methods and they are a far cry from their prefabricated predecessors. Few will disagree that using vacant public land to build homes quickly and with less pollution and disruption could be great news for London, tailored to demands at every price point.

“The lack of a single design standard or mass market demand has held back the sector’s growth. This is a once in a generation opportunity to work collaboratively with investors, developers and policy makers at a time where experts, central and local government are all calling for the same thing to happen. The Mayor is ideally placed to respond to the report’s recommendations and call to action.”

Mark Farmer, Chief Executive of Cast Consultancy and author of the Farmer Review, said: “This timely report sends an unequivocal message to the Mayor of London that now is the time to show strong political leadership to establish a mainstream precision manufactured housing market in the capital. It could underpin ambitions not just for housing, but wider economic growth.”

 

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