L&G Reveals Turn-Key Modular Housing Prototype to Tackle Crisis

Legal & General (L&G) has revealed its first turn-key modular housing prototype, as it continues to drive the evolution of the housing sector to help tackle the country’s long-term chronic housebuilding crisis.

Located outside its 550,000 square foot factory in Selby, near Leeds, the prototype is a two-storey, two-bedroom home. Exploring a range of designs, L&G expects to deliver its first modular homes in the first half of next year.

The Leeds site is building the capacity to produce thousands of homes per year across eight production lines, employing hundreds of local people.

Modular housing is quicker and more efficient than traditional housebuilding, delivering homes in a matter of weeks, rather than years, to a consistently high standard. This is achieved by building precision-engineered homes in a factory environment, ensuring accuracy of build in dry controlled conditions, using state of the art methods and materials.

The manufacturing process is highly energy efficient and will be carried out by a stable trained workforce. Constructing the homes from Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) delivers further environmental benefits, by storing one tonne of CO₂ in every m³ of CLT used in the construction of each home. This ensures an economically viable and sustainable solution to deliver much needed capacity for the industry.

The CEO of L&G Modular, Rosie Toogood, comments on the firm’s modular housing prototype: “The unveiling our first prototype today marks an exciting and important step in our programme to bring modular homes constructed from CLT to market. This prototype demonstrates the high quality of our modular solutions, debunking preconceptions of modular housing. At full production, homes like this will be delivered repeatedly in a matter of weeks without the snagging issues faced by traditional methods.

“L&G has a long heritage in providing housing in the UK, and sees modular construction as a natural evolution and extension of its position in this market. Modular construction is set to revolutionise the housebuilding sector, bringing new materials, along with methods and processes used in industries such as car-making, to raise productivity and help to address the UK’s chronic shortfall of new homes.”

L&G has been involved in housing activities for almost 20 years, including its new, institutional Build to Rent schemes.

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