Rooker to announce huge boost for prefab homes

A special fund to build modular homes is set to be announced by housing and planning minister Lord Rooker.

The announcement is expected at the National Housing Federation's conference in Birmingham next week.

This will form a central plank of deputy prime minister John Prescott's plan to boost housebuilding in the South-east.

It follows a meeting held at the end of last month at which Prescott heard housing associations suggest ways the government could help them deliver modular homes.

The chief executive of the Guinness Trust, Simon Dow, who is also the chairman of the off-site manufacturing working group, made one of the presentations.

Dow said: "There are a number of sources already, but we need volume and certainty and time to gear up to provide the necessary economies of scale.

"We said that we wanted a ring-fenced programme and that it was critical that this had to be for three years," he added.

Dow stressed that a government commitment was needed to allow suppliers of modular housing such as Yorkon, Westbury and Barratt to to bring down their prices.

Off-site manufacturing would then be seen more favourably by the Housing Corporation when it was deciding which schemes presented best value for money.

Dow also pointed out that it was important for mainstream housebuilders to use modular housing. "We don't want the social housing sector to operate in a vacuum from the rest of the housebuilding sector," he said.

He added that if the ODPM sets a target of 1000 modular homes as part of next year's ADP allocation, then this could easily be met with current capacity.

The next meeting of the OSM working group is scheduled for 8 October, after Lord Rooker has announced details of next year's ADP budget. He is expected to make the announcement at the NHF conference.

After the Peabody project at Murray Grove, east London, interest in the OSM technique has rocketed. James Pickard of architect Cartwright Pickard, which designed Murray Grove, said: "We are currently talking to Yorkshire Housing about a much larger scheme using modular construction. We are also working on a couple of schemes for Peabody with a value of £20-£23m. Other housing associations are also talking to us about this, so it is taking off fantastically."