Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department will take to expand the evidence base to increase its understanding of modern methods of construction technologies and their effect on functional design for people who will live in homes subject to those construction technologies.

The Government is committed to increasing the supply of houses and that requires a modern construction industry. Building more homes using modern methods of construction, including offsite and smart techniques, is a key part of this.

We are always looking to expand our evidence base across all of our policy areas, especially ones with new, ever improving technologies such as modern methods of construction (MMC). We will continue to work with industry to further our understanding of construction technologies as well as use our own metrics in our programmes. For example, the new Affordable Homes Programme funding has a minimum target for MMC, which will be reviewed annually and increased as market conditions allow. We will also be commissioning a research project on the risks associated with modular construction.