08.07.19

Housing 2019: MMC takes centre stage

Having craned two modular homes into place in front of Manchester Central to raise awareness about the potential of MMC at Housing 2018, we are delighted to share that Housing 2019 was even bigger, better and bolder for ilke Homes.

Taking place over three days, this year’s conference highlighted how much the conversation about offsite manufacturing has matured within the short space of a year and we were proud to lead the way in a number of engaging and thought-provoking debates with housing professionals from across the industry.

MMC took to its very own stage

Sponsored by ilke Homes and supported by Trowers & Hamlin, Places for People and NHBC, MMC had its very own stage at the conference for hosting expert sessions, talks and debates. With a feel of Glastonbury tucked into a tepee, we created an informal setting to encourage pan-industry collaboration.

On the opening day, voice of the industry, Mark Farmer of Cast Consultancy kickstarted proceedings with an impassioned address: ‘The future is here and now, are you ready?’ Headlining the stage that same day, Housing Minister Kit Malthouse MP joined audiences to say it was time for MMC to finally establish itself as a viable method of delivering much-needed new homes to address the UK housing shortage.

In order to achieve this vision, the MMC stage programme was designed to share the knowledge and learnings needed for all partners and players in our industry to succeed. As such, throughout the three-days, our team shared expertise on essential MMC topics while addressing the fact that conversation has very definitely moved on from ‘why’ to ‘how to’.

Our Executive Chairman Dave Sheridan, Product Director Nigel Banks, Construction Managing Director, David Jones, and Learning and Development Manager, Lisa Avins, led panel sessions on diverse and critical subjects such as funding, working with volumetric manufacturing, increasing housing supply and construction industry skills.

We’ve launched the housing sector’s go-to guide for working with volumetric manufacturing

Given that attention is now focussed on the practical aspects of working with MMC, we were proud to use Housing 2019 as a platform to launch our brand new MMC guide, It All Stacks Up, Building Homes Using Volumetric Manufacturing, which has been meticulously crafted to help the housing sector decide when, where, how and why to use volumetric manufacturing.

Covering everything from manufacturing to funding, the guide shares recent learnings and thinking from industry experts making it the go-to resource for housing professionals.

It also shows how volumetric housebuilding can be used strategically to further increase the numbers of new homes completed. For example, the ‘sweet spots’ such as the ability to meet grant deadlines and use grant funding in a clever way. Being only 21 months out from the original SOAHP deadline, if an RP hasn’t started on a scheme yet, they could complete by March 2021, for example, if they made it a volumetric scheme.

Offsite dominated the agenda

At Housing 2019 it became very apparent that MMC hasn’t just turned a corner, it’s reshaping the way the industry thinks about housebuilding.

Evidencing how far the conversation has progressed, Theresa May took to the podium in one of her last, legacy setting acts as Prime Minister, and urged the industry to increase its adoption of MMC to unlock greater volumes of new higher quality housing.

Completing a parliamentary trio The Secretary of State for Housing and Communities, James Brokenshire attended the conference while Housing Minister Kit Malthouse voiced his support for MMC by taking to Twitter with the message #MoreBetterFaster.

It’s a wrap for this year…

Housing 2019 was a huge success for ilke. Not only was it great to take to the stage and lead the ever-engaging debate in the name of collaboration, we met up with lots of new and existing contacts and learned a great deal from sharing our experiences.

We enjoyed it so much that we’ll round off by inviting you to join us at the conference next year.

Let’s see what we can achieve together between now and Housing 2020!