Khan must step up to increase offsite manufacturing, says London Assembly

London mayor Sadiq Khan should use public land and a mayoral design code to help boost the offsite modular housing sector, according to a report from the London Assembly. The Designed, Sealed, Delivered report says that offsite manufacturing has the potential to bridge the gap between what traditional housebuilding can deliver and what London needs. Its six recommendations include more funding through the Mayor’s Innovation Fund, changing policy to promote OSM and Khan taking a strong leadership role. Modular building methods can help mitigate the construction skills crisis by creating homes offsite in factories. They can also be erected in half the time of conventional buildings, massively reducing traffic, pollution and disruption, while improving consistency and quality. Assembly member Nicky Gavron said OSM has huge potential in terms of quality, speed of construction and in the ability to build above infrastructure, unlocking even more housing. “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,” she said. She said the mayor’s support is needed because a lack of scale in the nascent sector continues to hold back viability and at the moment it can be more expensive than conventional methods. Factors holding OSM back The report said there were a number of factors holding OSM back: There is not the volume of demand and continuity of supply to justify the upfront capital investment needed to build the plant to manufacture the product; Traditional funding and financing models are not geared to the requirements of OSM where there is a need for greater upfront finance; Little guidance anywhere that applies specifically to OSM housing; Absence of design codes and standardisation; Existing housing partnerships, or organisations like the G15, that might offer the basis of collaborative partnerships have yet to demonstrate a successful approach in London. The six recommendations of the report are: The mayor needs to provide a clear and strong leadership role in the development of awareness of OSM’s potential. He needs to consider how best to promote the sector and to foster the confidence the industry and housing providers need. The mayor should critically examine his strategies and guidance to see if there are any policy barriers to wider adoption of OSM. The issue of ensuring OSM provides a high-quality solution must be emphasised so improvements in the performance of the sector are maintained. The mayor should create and adopt a manufactured housing design code in conjunction with designers, manufacturers and housing providers, and specify the key rules for a ‘design for manufacture and assembly’ approach to London housing. The design code should be branded as a mayoral ‘kitemark’, supported by suitable warranty providers to promote its use to drive a more standardised and aggregated demand profile. The mayor should announce a further round of his Innovation Fund that is specifically focussed on OSM reflecting the particular grant profiles required to support OSM developments. The mayor should look at using GLA and TfL-owned land to stimulate the OSM sector. OSM homes are quick to build and quick to generate rent. The mayor should set up a London-specific fully pre-qualified OSM led procurement framework. The key objective would be the attraction of a sufficient number of developers and contractors capable of delivering housing using a range of OSM led solutions and which are suitable for the variety of sites and typologies and all the specific challenges that exist in London. Mark Farmer, chief executive of Cast Consultancy, said: “There is also a great opportunity for the mayor to bring together different policy recommendations from across the political spectrum and also connect emerging policy in this area to his separate Skills for Londoners manifesto commitment and the Construction Academy Scheme initiative.” To send feedback, e-mail alex.peace@egi.co.uk or tweet @egalexpeace or @estatesgazette