The Off-site manufacturing industry has the capacity to produce 30,000 homes a year, far short of the figure needed to meet official expectations.
The government is looking to methods such as steel frame, timber frame and modular construction to help solve the housing shortfall. It needs to get homes built rapidly in the growth areas of the Thames Gateway, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, Ashford in Kent and the Stansted/Cambridge M11 corridor. It has pencilled in 200,000 houses for these areas.

However, according to research by Imperial College London, the off-site manufacturing industry has the capacity to supply less than a quarter of the current housebuilding output of 140,000 houses a year.

The results of the research will be outlined at a one-day conference to be hosted by the Housing Forum on 3 February. The conference will also reveal the results of the third national customer satisfaction survey of private housebuilders.