Prefab is no 'overnight solution' to homes shortage, says report

The off-site manufacturing industry is being pushed too fast, the government has been warned in a long-awaited report on the state of the sector.

The report, from lobby group the Housing Forum, also found that the fledgling industry will suffer without a sustained boost in demand for homes built using modern methods.

Judith Harrison, project director at the Housing Forum, said: "The government wants things to happen very quickly, but OSM isn't an overnight solution. It is a solution for boosting housebuilding in the longer term, but it is still in its infancy and needs people to place orders as soon as possible.

"Right now, it could either succeed or fail."

Harrison added that, despite deputy prime minister John Prescott's enthusiasm for the technology and the pressure on housing associations to use OSM to build a quarter of their homes in 2004/5, orders were running at about 17,000 a year. That's 13,000 homes short of what could be produced with the industry's current capacity.

She also voiced concern that orders could go abroad, saying: "Companies in other countries have continued to innovate while we have not. This is a problem."

OSM needs people to place orders as soon as possible. Right now, it could either succeed or fail

Judith Harrison, Housing Forum

Harrison described UK housebuilders as "conservative, reticent and using mistakes made in the past with prefabricated housing as a reason not to innovate in the future."

The report, Manufacturing Excellence will be published next Tuesday. It was compiled by Imperial College London from interviews carried out last summer with OSM producers and purchasers.

The report said suppliers such as Yorkon and Terrapin had found housebuilders were often unenthusiastic for factory-based techniques, as they contrasted with the "craft-based nature of the housebuilding industry".

The report, seen by Housing Today, called for guidance from the ODPM to "overcome resistance to its use by some planning authorities", as well as consumers and lenders.

It also calls for the creation of a forum of designers, manufacturers and developers, and for the government to ensure there are enough skilled workers to allow the industry to cope with demand.