Housing associations should not be forced to use modular building, the man charged with improving construction and procurement across the sector said this week.
Peter Rogers, chairman of Constructing Excellence – the pan-construction and clients body that includes the Housing Forum – said: "Modular units are right for some types of accommodation, like student halls of residence, but I'm not sure that going modular will ever be the right answer for housing."

His views are likely to bring him into conflict with deputy prime minister John Prescott, who is earmarking about £250m of next year's approved development programme for social houses that can be built off-site.

Rogers, a director of developer Stanhope, said the industry should focus on improving the efficiency of the building process to reduce costs and speed up construction.

He said site waste and the lack of any logistics and pre-planning were areas that could be improved on. "The average residential building is 20-30% more expensive than it should be."

Stanhope is working with architect the Richard Rogers Partnership to develop simply designed, low-cost houses for key workers. Lord Richard Rogers is Peter Rogers' brother.

"We want to maxmise the value in design. If you look at Georgian housing it is a pretty simple and quite standardised format," said Peter Rogers.

Richard Rogers Partnership is understood to be keen to work with housing associations to explore potential designs. It is in advanced negotiations with a number of large developing associations, although a spokesman refused to say which ones.

Source

Housing Today