Avoid offsite pitfalls or else, warns NHBC boss

The construction industry has been warned that progress in offsite methods could be set back years if poor design and wayward delivery are allowed to take hold in the sector.

Speaking in a debate on the quality of housing and housing delivery at last week’s Futurebuild event in London, Neil Jefferson, chief operating officer at the National House Building Council, said the industry simply could not afford to get offsite wrong.

Referring to catastrophes such as the Grenfell fire and the Scottish PFI schools collapses, he said: “It feels like there’s a cloud of negativity hanging over construction at the moment.”

Jefferson said there was already a “huge increase” in interest in offsite from contractors and manufacturers but warned that industry “cannot risk getting that wrong because it will set us back by decades”.

He said culture change might seem far-fetched, but  insisted it wasn’t impossible for such a shift to take place if the industry focused on three areas he believed would make a difference.

“We need to invest in skills and training to tackle the housing crisis and attract young people into construction.

“We have to find a system of universal metrics to measure building quality. And we need to be investing in offsite construction.”

Jefferson added: “The cost of bad design and delivery is too high to get things wrong.”

Earlier this month a consortium researching how modern methods of construction can increase the rate of housebuilding across the UK was awarded £6.5m in funding from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, overseen by Innovate UK, the government’s innovation agency.

The three-year Advanced Industrialised Methods for the Construction of Homes collaboration comprises housing association L&Q, Barratt Developments, the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre, Forster Roofing Services, the Manufacturing Technology Centre, Stewart Milne Group and Tarmac.