Ready-made homes that could solve housing crisis

READY-MADE homes which cost a fraction of traditional builds and can be on site within eight weeks are coming to Coventry in a bid to tackle the city’s housing crisis.

The first modular homes - prefabricated buildings or houses that consist of repeated sections called modules have been agreed in a joint project between Coventry City Council and Whitefriars Housing.

The city needs to build 38,000 homes over the next 15 years to keep up with demand.

And Cllr Ed Ruane, cabinet member for housing and communities, believes they could help solve the city’s housing crisis.

At the moment the council is spending as much as £100 a night placing people into temporary accommodation such as hotels and bed and breakfasts.

It means the authority has spent a huge £4.1m placing homeless people into temporary accommodation this year alone - nearly a 620 per cent increase on the £570,000 expenditure in 2013/14.

Cllr Ruane said: “It’s imperative really that we get these houses on board as quickly as possible.

“As many people in Coventry know, we’ve got 350 families living in temporary accommodation, like bed and breakfasts, which just clearly isn’t suitable.

“If we can bring this type of housing on board as quickly as possible that will address that problem and we’re hoping to do that in the next coming months.”

Said to be the future of affordable housing, modular homes can be built to any size within a factory.

They are far cheaper to build, and a two-bedroom house takes just eight weeks to make and move on to site.

The first site where modular homes will be introduced in Coventry is Littlethorpe in Willenhall.

The build is the result of a partnership between Whitefriars Housing - the largest provider of social housing in Coventry and the council.

Few details are yet available on the number and types of homes available on the development.

But Cllr Ruane said it could be just the start.

He said: “We’re hoping if this pilot scheme is successful that there will be further sites in the future where modular homes can be built.

“Whitefriars have identified another three sites in the city where we could have potentially have modular homes.”

Several councillors recently went to visit Totally Modular - a Midlands-based company specialising in the construction of modular housing - to see how the houses were being built.

They were shown around a ‘two-pod system’ - a two bedroom house which can house four people in 74 square metres and be constructed and delivered to site within eight weeks.

The two-pod system features two large double bedrooms, a lounge with French-doors opening into the rear garden, a breakfast bar kitchen, a downstairs toilet and a family bathroom.

The company makes modular homes of all sizes - including ‘MicroLiving’ homes which can be used to provide temporary housing for the homeless, emergency accommodation in the event of natural disasters such as flooding, or onsite living for large construction of civil engineering projects.

Cllr Ruane said he was impressed with the work the company is doing.

He said: “People often have preconceived perceptions about modular homes, but they are nothing like what you would think, they’re really smart.”

He also added that modular homes could work particularly well on small brownfield sites land that has been previously developed and is not currently in use such as disused garages within the city.

Other benefits include there being less disruption to existing residents.

“You can literally just drop the houses in,” he added.

“It means there’s far less impact on existing residents in terms of construction problems and the noise.”

Cllr Bavinder Kaur, deputy cabinet member for housing and communities, added: “I think it’s been a real eye-opener.

“All the myths and the preconceptions that I had about modular housing, to see how it’s actually being done and the individualisation that can be done and how we can accommodate the citizens and families of our city. It’s really positive.”

Cllr John Mutton, cabinet member for strategic finances and resources at Coventry City Council, said after the visit: “I think today’s visit has been extremely worthwhile. Obviously I’d heard of modular housing but didn’t really know what the cost was nor how quickly they could be put up.”