Off-site construction is set for a boost from a Department of Trade and Industry research initiative.
The £1.5m initiative is a bid to halve construction times and to increase the use of IT in the industry. It will take three years to complete.

A consortium of Co-Construct – a team of construction research organisations – and Loughborough University, led by the Construction Industry Research and Information Association, will start on the project in July.

The campaign will try to raise the profile of off-site manufacturing techniques through a series of forums and a website containing a "knowledge base".

Off-site production currently accounts for only 1% of house construction in the UK.

The initiative is the latest in a series of government moves encouraging OSM. The Housing Corporation revealed earlier this month that a quarter of its £1.4bn investment budget would be directed to OSM, and this summer the Housing Forum is to conclude a research document on OSM (HT, 14 March, page 8), funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Source

Housing Today