Accent to import flexible OSM homes from Canada

Accent Group will buy the homes, made by several companies in the region, from the Quebec government.

However, it will set up its own factories in the UK if there is enough demand for the units.

Accent, formerly Bradford & Northern, will approach other Yorkshire-based associations to ask whether they would be interested in buying the homes. It would also be keen for other associations to join.

The association will decide how many homes to buy and when to set up a factory next month. It declined to say how much it would spend on the project.

The first shipment is likely to arrive next summer.

The off-site manufacturing system will primarily be used for housebuilding but Accent could use it for small health developments. The association does a large amount of health and education work, including building GP surgeries through LIFT, the government’s private finance initiative scheme for the NHS.

Stuart Whyte, business strategy director at Accent, said it had chosen the Canadian system for its adaptability.

The Canadian system is well researched and it works.
We looked at products from this country and others. This was the most flexible

Stuart Whyte, Accent

He said: “It’s well researched and it works. We looked at products from this country and other countries. This was the most flexible. You can build combinations of houses and flats, single houses and large family houses.”

The association would start by building a sample project in order to assess the skills needed to build the homes, Whyte added.

Accent is the latest of a number of associations that have chosen to import off-site manufactured homes. Kelsey Housing Association in Kent has begun importing houses from Canadian firm Alouette Homes (HT 8 October, page 16). Hyde Housing Association is importing homes from Poland.

Simon Dow, chief executive of the Guinness Trust and the Housing Forum member responsible for modern methods of construction, said the ODPM’s programme to boost off-site manufacturing was only set to last for two to three years, but new factories could take seven years to start showing a profit.

“With the government plan, you could find yourself opening your factory at the end of that period of commitment the government has to off-site manufacture,” he said.

He said levels of off-site manufacturing in North America had been high for several years so UK firms buying homes could benefit from economies of scale. He added that it would take time to increase OSM in Britain.