Insurance giant confirms its 3,500-home capacity factory “currently not operational” due to virus outbreak
Insurance giant L&G has temporarily shut its modular housing factory in response to the coronavirus crisis, the firm has said.
A spokeswoman for L&G Modular said its factory in Sherburn-in-Elmet near Leeds, designed to produce 3,500-homes a year, was “currently not operational”, although other work at the business was continuing.
The news follows the decision by Urban Splash last month to mothball its modular housing operation after chief executive Tom Bloxham concluded operations could not continue safely in the light of government guidance on social distancing.
L&G Modular’s factory, plans for which were announced in 2016 as part of L&G’s broader housebuilding push, has already been beset by problems, with the modular business reporting losses of £78m in the last three years.
The spokeswoman said that the firm had devised a strategy for safe working in the factory incorporating social distancing, for when the current severe “lockdown” measures were relaxed. She said: “During factory closure we have re-engineered our processes so we are ready to operate safely with social distancing measures in place when the time comes.”
In the meantime, she said employees were either working from home or taking a holiday on the understanding hours would be worked back at a later date. She said: “Team members who can, are currently working from home, with the remainder accruing hours under a banked hours arrangement which means they will work back this time when they return to work.”
L&G set up the 550,000ft2 factory in 2016 and originally said the first homes would be rolling off the production line in by June that year. However, so far, the factory has mainly produced house prototypes, though it did deliver eight homes for Silva Homes in Berkshire.
L&G is known to be looking to use the factory to produce two-bed and three-bed homes, three-bed and four-bed townhouses, and one-, two- and three-bed apartments. In December 2019 Housing Today revealed the firm had moved to using concrete and steel for its proposed apartment products, despite having originally launched the concept as based on Cross Laminated Timber (CLT).
The firm said it will continue to use CLT for its two- and three-bedroom home products.
In June 2017, L&G brought in former Rolls-Royce executive Rosie Toogood to be L&G Modular’s chief executive. Last October, L&G’s overall chief executive Nigel Wilson told The Times that setting up the factory had taken longer than expected but that he was now “very happy” with the business and that “the hard yards are over.”
L&G Modular and Urban Splash are among the first of the new generation of offsite housebuilding firms to have given any insight as to the impact of covid-19 on their operations. Rivals such as Ilke Homes and Vision Modular Systems have thus far declined to comment when asked if operations are continuing during lockdown.
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