Housing: Modern Methods of Construction

Lord Best Excerpts

Thursday 5th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, as a member of the Built Environment Committee under the able chairmanship of the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, which investigated this matter, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Carrington of Fulham, for introducing this debate so helpfully. Deploying modern methods of construction is obviously the way forward, yet the industry has recently been characterised by a succession of business failures and even bankruptcies. Can we still expect the modern methods of construction sector to fulfil its clear potential?

I suggest three prerequisites for success. First, the MMC industry needs a more certain and consistent pipeline of orders. The important stipulation of Homes England and the GLA that a proportion of the affordable homes they fund must be built using MMC techniques needs to be refined to provide greater certainty for the manufacturers. Will the Government’s agencies be more specific as to the appropriate categories of MMC—and, indeed, the systems that have the lowest embedded carbon emissions, such as prefabricated timber frame construction?

Secondly, to comply with the new future homes standard, developers and social landlords will be propelled into using prefabricated homes, because of the greater precision achieved in factory settings. Will the Government be firm in ensuring enforcement of the new standards that will inevitably mean more use of MMC? Thirdly, will the new Skills England give priority to workforce skills for MMC in its much-needed reforms of apprenticeships and training for the construction industry?

With attention to these issues, modern methods of construction can indeed make possible the quantity and quality of new homes this country desperately needs.