The Government published the Construction Sector Deal on 5 July 2018 which sets goals for the delivery of cheaper, better performing, more energy efficient buildings that can be built quicker.
The goals are to be met by focusing on digital design techniques, offsite manufacturing and whole life asset performance.
The Deal recommends developing a standard methodology to be used across the sector to drive the construction supply chain to focus on the performance of assets across their whole life and invest in the capability and skills needed to deliver this. This can tackle the uncertainty around how the completed home will perform over its lifecycle and whether the ongoing maintenance of the asset will be more or less than a traditionally built home.
However, the Deal still leaves key questions to be answered by the industry – who is to create the standard methodology to enable assessment of lifecycle costs and who is to develop the benchmarking approach?
Furthermore, without comfort from manufacturers, suppliers and contractors, that their modern methods of construction will be as sustainable as a traditionally built project, it is likely the public sector will remain reluctant to commit more than a pilot programme to offsite manufactured housing.
