MMC - the way to deliver homes? Last week MMC was debated in the Lords and there were some notable contributions. More a series of presentations than a debate but that’s how the system works. We need realism, especially in respect of deliverability, in any valuable debate on MMC. We have looked at various solutions over the last decade and met with a number of potential suppliers, from frame systems to fully modular. Ultimately, without significant subsidy fully modular are “impossible” to deliver for viable market schemes. My own view is that this is largely to the massive setup costs which seemingly need to be recovered within 3-5 years at most. If we were able to take a longer 15-20 year position then it would seem that costs could be significantly reduced. Many people, including myself, have debated the main issues many times, however, to my mind we are no closer to delivering Modular in its purest than we were a decade ago. Currently, the fewer components we assemble in factories the lower the build cost is. Yes there are panel and frame systems that can be cost effective. We recently used LSG on a project, speed and costs are reasonable. There are doubts re mortgages for some systems which limits their use to commercial and institutional projects in the main. The debate will no doubt rumble on for the next decade and I’m sure we will see some gradual increase in MMC completions. Will it make any meaningful impact on delivering 300,000 homes a year though? Happy to talk with anyone who isn’t just wanting to sell me something.

Posted by Richard Little at 2024-09-09 11:30:58 UTC