Housing: Modern Methods of Construction

Baroness Scott of Bybrook Excerpts

Thursday 5th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

My Lords, the final report of the Grenfell inquiry was published yesterday. With the leave of the House, I take this opportunity to send my condolences again, and my thoughts and prayers, to a very brave and courageous community in London.

I thank my noble friend Lord Carrington of Fulham for bringing this Motion to the House, and my noble friend Lord Moylan for his chairmanship of the committee and for chairing this short inquiry. On every side of this Chamber, we know that more homes are desperately needed across the country and that it is crucial that we deliver the right homes in the right places. Ministers should consider carefully whether modern methods of construction have a greater role to play in delivering the homes we need. The Opposition want the Government to deliver enough homes to enable the next generation to get on to the housing ladder, and we will hold Ministers’ feet to the fire on the pledges they made in their manifesto at the last election.

In approaching this debate, it is important to note that we have made significant progress on housing delivery in recent years. Successive Conservative Governments have delivered 2.5 million more homes since 2010 while respecting local communities and ensuring that those homes were built in the right place. We hope that the Government will build on our success and continue to respect local people while prioritising developments on brownfield sites, as we did in government.

At the last election, the Labour Party made a solemn pledge to the British people that it would deliver 1.5 million homes over this Parliament. In doing so, it has set itself a target that people across the country are relying on. We need more homes, and Ministers need a clear plan to deliver them. We on the Opposition Benches will be watching the Government very closely, as they watched us, and pressing for the right homes in the right places, as we delivered in government.

The Labour Party manifesto focuses almost entirely on planning reform to deliver more homes, but industry experts are clear that the challenges we face go well beyond the question of planning law. One crucial challenge is labour supply. The Construction Industry Training Board states in its report Focusing on the Skills Construction Needs that the sector

“needs to recruit the equivalent of 251,000 extra workers over the next five years”,

based on existing predictions. That number is likely to rise if the Government are serious about hitting their targets.

The simple fact is that, if we want to build more homes, we will need hundreds of thousands more construction workers. Even as the party that helped 4 million more people into work since 2010, it is clear to those of us on the Opposition Benches that the supply of labour in the construction sector will be a challenge for the Government. This is where Ministers should perhaps take note of the arguments from the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, today.

In the face of labour supply challenges, modern methods of construction, which encompass a range of techniques, including off-site fabrication and the use of on-site robots in the construction process, could have an important role to play in housing delivery. Homes England has concluded that modern methods of construction are capable of driving greater efficiency and productivity, which the Built Environment Committee noted in its letter to the department.

One stark example of the impact that modern methods of construction can have is the delivery of the Grange University Hospital, in south Wales. The £350 million hospital building project was completed four months ahead of schedule—which is unusual—with parts of the hospital completed a year ahead of the projected completion date, in large part thanks to the use of modern methods of construction.

Modern methods of construction could have a bright future and an important role in housing delivery, but, as the Built Environment Committee has referenced, the sector has seen a number of businesses fail in recent years. This may be a result of those businesses not benefitting from the necessary economies of scale that other large housebuilders benefit from. Ministers should look at this closely to see whether the Government can support the sector so that it can play a full role in driving efficiency and boosting the delivery of more homes.

I have a number of questions for the Minister, which I hope can be addressed in her speech, though I am happy for her to write if not. What assessment have the Government made of the role that modern methods of construction might play in speeding up the delivery of the homes that we need? Do the Government anticipate hitting their housebuilding targets early if modern methods of construction are harnessed effectively? Will the Government consider actively supporting the modern methods of construction sector as part of their housebuilding programme? What other steps will the Government be taking to overcome the labour supply challenges faced by the construction sector? Do Ministers anticipate labour supply becoming more of a problem in the light of their new housebuilding targets?

The modern methods of construction sector is interesting and it is growing. Ministers should watch the sector closely, so that innovations can be harnessed to the benefit of the British people.