Revamp will preserve prefabs for future use

HISTORIC England has given £4,000 to a project focused on restoring 1945 prefab houses after the Government suggested they could use similar buildings to help solve the housing crisis.

The Birmingham Conservation Trust, in partnership with the Twentieth Century Society and the Prefab Museum, secured the grant to plan restoration works on the post-war dwellings.

The cottage-style bungalows in Wake Green Road, Moseley, were among 4,000 prefabs built in Birmingham and 16 of the 17 homes were given listed status in 1998.

Built in the months after the end of the Second World War, the Phoenix-model prefabs – 10 of which are still occupied by council tenants – were originally expected to last for around a decade. Jane Hearn, of the Prefab Museum, said: “The Wake Green prefabs are the only Phoenix-type post-war prefabs listed in the UK.

“Mainly still lived in and cherished, it is great news the Birmingham Conservation Trust is willing to develop a conservation strategy to save them, involving The Prefab Museum, which is delighted to take part and bring its national expertise to help plan their long term future.

“Prefabs played a crucial role in the rebuilding of Britain after the Second World War and contributed so much to post-war recovery.” It comes after The Sunday

Telegraph reported last year that the Government had decided to meet housing targets with a new generation of prefab homes.