Westbury Homes is to realise its vision of entirely prefabricated estates in a development in South Yorkshire.
The company said that it will be able to build the homes, which are at Penistone Lea, near Sheffield, twice as quickly as would be the case with conventional methods. It added that they would be better insulated than normal houses.

The internal walls and structural insulated wall panels will be manufactured at Westbury's Space 4 factory at Yardley, Birmingham, where they will also be fitted with doors and windows. The packages will then be assembled on site.

Westbury regional managing director Alan Dorn said: "It not only proves our commitment to this part of the country, it also shows how keen we are to share the latest house design processes. There is no doubt that Space 4 is the future of housebuilding."

The factory supplies ready-made components for Westbury homes around the UK and is the largest of its type in Europe. This year it will produce components for about 1000 homes and Westbury aims to raise that to 5000 homes by the end of 2002.

The Space 4 factory was closed after a 48-year-old employee died last Monday. The factory was still closed on Tuesday this week because of a police and Health and Safety Executive investigation.