Get Sust! Issue 33

MMC barriers revealed

A study by researchers at Loughborough University’s Department of Civil and Building Engineering has identified a number of reasons why housing developers are failing to capitalise on the cost and sustainability benefits of off-site manufacture.

Off-site manufacture, also known as ‘Modern Methods of Construction (MMC)’, is often cited as a solution to meeting the growing demands for housing, improved quality standards, and to solve skills shortages.

With little hard data about the actual extent of offsite-MMC usage, and a variety of technologies available, the industry is in a state of uncertainty as to the benefits or pitfalls of offsite-MMC, despite government policy which aims to increase its uptake. Wei Pan and his team set out to investigate the current use of offsite-MMC among the UK’s top 100 housebuilders (measured by the number of unit completions), using a combination of face-to-face interviews and a postal questionnaire for senior managers.

Although the results show that the majority of the housebuilders were interested in offsite technologies, their comments suggest that there remains a risk-averse attitude among a significant number of them. And while the trend towards offsite-MMC is likely to increase in future years, a wider take-up of such technologies is largely being inhibited by higher capital costs, interfacing problems, longer lead-in time, delayed planning process and current manufacturing capacity.

The researchers conclude that the industry needs to overcome the ‘chicken and egg’ syndrome, where everyone is waiting for someone else to set the ball rolling - a situation that is potentially reflected in the slow take-up of sustainable construction as a whole.

Learn more:

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Read the full details of this study in ‘Leading UK housebuilders’ utilization of offsite construction methods’ by Wei Pan, Alistair G.F. Gibb and Andrew R.J. Dainty, Building Research & Information, Vol. 36, Issue 1, p. 56, available at online www.tandf.co.uk/journals.