Housing trust joins group to boost building projects
HALTON Housing has joined the board of ‘Building Better’ consortium looking to accelerate housebuilding.
The group is now working with like-minded organisations with what a spokesman called the ‘vision, ambition and imagination’ to innovate in order to build more units with good quality.
Supported by the National Housing Federation, Building Better is intended to enable housing associations to share ambitions, risk and knowledge while retaining individuality in the affordable housing sector.
Halton Housing’s spokesman said the organisation has piloted two developments using modern methods of construction (MMC) in the last five years, completing 12 homes.
He said the projects resulted in learning about costs and building speed compared to traditional methods, skills, and safety as well as issues such as snagging and defect issues, wastage, energy efficiency performance and post-occupation performance.
Halton Housing is now looking to take these lessons and convert them into future schemes.
Paul Mullane, Halton Housing’s director of development and growth, will represent the group on the Building Better board.
Paul, who is looking forward to being its ‘northern voice’, said: “I’m delighted to be joining the Building Better board on behalf of Halton Housing, but also on behalf of housing associations in the North on MMC.
“Through collaboration and standardisation, we can overcome the challenges of supply and design by combining housing association pipelines to leverage the benefits offered by off-site manufacturing techniques. I am looking forward to playing a part in delivering better homes that are delivered faster.”
Helen Greig, Building Better project director, said: “We are delighted to welcome Halton Housing to the Building Better group, and Project Board.
Building Better is about collaboration across the entire housing association sector and not limited to a specific geography.
“The more diverse our membership, the better able we are to represent the entire sectors needs to realise the true benefits of MMC.”
Halton Housing has set a goal of building 1,000 homes by 2022.
The spokesman said MMC offers ‘enormous potential’ to not only accelerate this work but to deliver better quality homes too.
Advantages of MMC include faster construction, fewer defects, and reductions in energy use and waste.