The Autumn Budget was positive, but the Government could provide more clarity, particularly around solving the housing crisis, says Mike Daniels, Commercial Director at Wates Residential.
We secured an exclusive interview with Mike Daniels as part of the newly launched exhibition, New Homes in New Ways: Collaboration and Innovation Through Modern methods of Construction.
One of Wates’ innovative solutions is the Transitional Modular Housing offer, which leverages modular technology to deliver quick, durable temporary homes on various sites. These homes provide a transitional solution, helping families move out of hotels and hostels into more stable accommodation.
Do you feel the new Government should give the industry a push by mandating MMC? For example, a new coherent strategy with an increased requirement to use MMC through the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) to incentivise housing associations, /local authorities to use MMC in their projects.
It was great to see announcements in the Government’s Autumn Budget that there will be a boost in funding for the AHP. But I’d take it further and say that the Government should allocate specific grant funding, with even greater clarity than it does currently. Adding further new regulations or restrictions on housing delivery without clear grant funding and supporting planning routes would only add sand to the cogs.
The great thing is that we have been and continue to have discussions with MHCLG who are open to and welcome our assistance and advice in this area including how to accelerate the delivery of our transitional use modular homes.
What do you see as the key challenges and barriers to the widespread adoption of MMCs in UK housing delivery?
Fundamentally MMC businesses rely on the repeatability of production, the certainty of a well-defined and long-term view of their pipeline. Success also depends on competent management of projects and the ability of the supply chain to invest in efficiency improvements.
The difficulties of MMC are amplified in the public housing sector, particularly depending on the project’s location and the stakeholders involved. These challenges often come from varying design requirements, a transactional approach that lacks end-to-end ownership and projects with customers who are functionally siloed.
Whilst the topic of MMC is very broad, one way of using it is to create volumetric modular homes. Modular homes can relieve pressure in the housing market by providing high-quality and sustainable housing quickly and efficiently in any local area. Wates is proactively working to address the issues within the modular homes sector by:
- Being a trusted, financially robust and experienced facilitator, from inception through to completion and beyond
- Partnering up with a limited number of trusted modular suppliers
- Joining up the individual opportunities of our own and our local authority and housing association partner sites to provide a pipeline
- Delivering modular homes to the quality of permanent homes, but designed for relocation so they can suit the needs of our partner’s overall housing plans across their area
- Developing a standardised playbook of available products, with some but a limited number of variants
- Bringing together a central team of experts to guide projects successfully, whist local teams can utilise their knowledge to best facilitate delivery
- Demonstrating clear value for money, along with a range of commercial options
- Identifying simple procurement routes via the long-term frameworks we are a part of
The modular homes sector has suffered in the past from it being sold as the ‘silver bullet’ to the housing crisis. This is not where we are. However, it’s an important addition to current housing delivery, and will help the UK to meet its high demands, especially when the labour shortage is considered.
In your opinion are there any game-changing innovations taking place in the MMC market?
I believe that the real game-changer for MMC would be about finding better ways to deploy the already road-tested systems and designs.
For us, it’s not about choosing between MMC or traditional build. To have a hope of addressing the housing crisis, we need to harness the potential of all of the tools and solutions we can, and we need to be building off site as well as on.
One fantastic example of this has been our work with Cardiff Council where we have, along with supply partners, increased the number of homes being delivered annually by utilising 3D volumetric homes on transitional use sites, alongside the low-rise housing schemes that were in the partnership pipeline.
What do you believe we need to change around the terminology and language of MMC, if at all? Do you think the current perception is a barrier preventing adoption in the UK due to past failures with modular housing factories and inaccurate misconceptions?
Whilst there is a case for rebranding MMC or modular homes specifically, the concept of modular construction is inherently sound and there are many examples of success in other countries.
Many would agree that the failures in the volumetric market have often been due to a ‘build it and they will come’ approach. As a result, many businesses overinvested in both fixed costs and people, instead of building up progressively, and this led to numerous issues in the supply chain.
Getting the balance right in being set up so you can respond more quickly to need and not overinvesting is a continuing challenge for the sector.
How do you feel the UK Planning System could reform to increase housing deliveries?
Planning and grant funding are inextricably linked but navigating them can result in conflicting requirements, especially in our transitional homes offering. This results in significant time being expended and schemes becoming unviable, despite the underlying housing need.
We are currently working to bring together professionals from across the sector in service of a common goal - to ensure people get the quality of housing they deserve.
Our vision is to provide a quick and robust solution to provide homes that are temporary on a range of sites. This would mean that people and families can move out of hotels and hostels and into high quality homes as they transition into a more permanent home for the longer term.
We are doing this by harnessing modular technology that is quick to deploy and are working on developing a precedent for a planning approach that is streamlined, cutting through the red tape of a permanent housing application.
I believe that the government should look to extend permitted development rights, to include a new classification for this temporary accommodation. With careful classification and conditions, the quality of the placemaking and positive impact on the community can be ensured, whilst providing valuable life changing standards of accommodation to families so desperately in need. The new approach would also ensure the use of the site following the temporary homes period is considered, for example by looking to establish the utility connections that a future scheme may require to de risk the site going forward.
A joined-up approach on grant funding, even if just specifically for infrastructure, and planning would greatly assist in the delivery of homes as part of the Government’s 1.5 million target.
About Wates
Mike Daniels is board sponsor Wates Residential’s Transitional Modular Housing offering which builds on the success of MMC homes delivered in South Wales. This initiative demonstrates Wates Residential’s full range of developer and contractor capabilities to help address the temporary housing crisis across the UK.
Wates Group is the UK's leading family-owned development, building, and property maintenance company founded more than 125 years ago.
Wates Residential is one of the group’s four divisions and is a leading housing developer and contractor. A key element of the business is partnering with local authorities and housing associations to develop, build and maintain high-quality, sustainable homes, creating residential developments across the UK that support communities to thrive.
Image captions: Modular homes delivered by Wates in partnership with Cardiff Council at the Gasworks site. More information can be found here: https://www.wates.co.uk/projects/residential-development/residential/gas-works-cardiff-council/
