Whatever your political stance it’s now time to ‘collaborate’​: Embrace investment to help solve our Housing Crisis

These times of adversity are unique to us all. Being fed a 'tsunami' of confusing opinionated media activity and concerning 'volatile leadership' - and even if a vaccine is invented there are those deeply concerned folk who remind us 'germ theory' has never been proven, let alone the damage caused by vaccines.

Welcome to our 'new normal' a progressive way of working. Positivity is key.

There is a silver lining to this disturbing pandemic which has created serious consideration for health and housing. It's helped most of us align our priorities in life caring for one another which is a positive.

Government borrowing possibly the highest since the end of the 2nd World War? international investors poised to fulfil the role of 'saviour' combining highest quality Modern Methods of Construction but without meaningful collaboration from UK Local Authorities and absolute critical support from Local Delivery Partners & Experts this is simply not possible - the latter more than doable considering a wealth of UK construction professionals we are lucky to have. We see this tide turning with the application of sheer common sense to build sustainable high quality affordable housing eliminating layers of unnecessary profit - going 'direct to source' including working with suitably aligned modern thinking contractors eliminates conventional development methods. Let MMC consultants continue to scramble amongst themselves to secure their position - it's a free market after all, but without contributing significant value added such as 100% finance and proven accredited multi-faceted genuine 'production rich capacity' OSM they will simply fade away. Key stake holders including investors, OSM's and local delivery partners including authorities will lead the way.

The government will need to expand its collaboration with Homes England and fund training centres, such as the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre concept, to develop programmes targeted for use in the manufacture of MMC new homes, say the Housing, Communities & Local Housing Committee of parliament. The initial work to develop centres of excellence, which bring together businesses and academia to support innovation, is welcome – but could be strengthened by coordinating with the Transforming Construction Programme and Construction Innovation Hub. With increasing construction costs, an industry skills shortage, and shrinking margins, the demand for innovation in the housebuilding sector has never been more important. MMC funding is currently limited in the private sector, but local authorities have access to the PWLB for finance. Even with the recent interest rate increase mentioned earlier, where councils do rely on private lending it will be on an unsecured basis. Local authorities can now borrow for modular projects and start bringing products to the market without having to convince banks of their performance. However, Councils will still need to satisfy themselves of the lifespan, maintenance and durability of MMC-built homes.

In addition, it’s no secret that after years of underinvestment and the emphasis shifting away from local authorities as housebuilders, councils face a skills and knowledge shortage. However, it is worth noting that the local authority housing borrowing cap was scrapped last year. Many councils are already setting up joint ventures with private developers and registered providers – some of which have modular factories of their own – to share resource and expertise. A positive step for housebuilding, but their delivery partners will face the same difficulties if they want to borrow on a secured basis from private lenders.