TALKING POINT
DISPELLING THE MYTHS OF MMC IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR John Skivington, Group Director of LHC, talks to PSBJ about the benefits of MMC, and alleviates some of the common concerns associated with this construction technique.
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t feels as though we’re on the cusp of a boom in the adoption of modern methods of construction (MMC) in public sector housebuilding. Demand will be driven partly by the Government; Homes England has specified that, as part of its latest Affordable Homes Programme, its strategic partners must deliver at least 25% of its housing using MMC. That means every home within that 25% must have a pre-manufactured value (PMV) of 55% or above – that is, the value of the property produced through MMC processes. On top of that, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is setting up an MMC Task Force, with £10m of seed funding, to accelerate its adoption across the sector.
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At LHC, we’re also seeing demand driven directly by local authorities and other registered providers themselves – for example, our north and central England local hub, CPC, has recently helped both Sheffield and Middlesbrough councils deliver domestic and non-domestic projects respectively. This is perhaps thanks to a growing recognition of the cost and speed benefits, but also due to the increasing pressure to deliver more new homes, while simultaneously having to retrofit for safety and energy improvements. But despite all of this, there is still trepidation within the sector to be the first, the ‘early adopters’. I believe this could be down to a misunderstanding of the barriers to entry into MMC, and complications with public sector procurement constraints. The Government is clearly recognising the benefits of MMC in the face of its target to deliver 300,000 new homes a year. In the face of this, there’s a desperate need to accelerate local construction. MMC buildings can be delivered much quicker than with traditional building methods, resulting in more homes and less disruption to the local area.
John Skivington has been at the helm of LHC – a leading not-for-profit public sector purchasing consortium – as its Group Director for nearly 17 years, and is one of only three directors of the organisation since it was founded 55 years ago.
For example, the project I mentioned in Sheffield saw residents move into their new homes less than five months after the building modules were lifted into place. A recent report published by CAST Consultancy and HTA Design indicates that offsite technology can result in a 40% reduction in emissions when compared to traditional construction, with a dramatic improvement in embodied CO 2 emissions.
So, why the remaining concern over MMC? Firstly, I think many people in the sector see it as an expensive luxury, given the initial project costs. Some feel that because of this, it’s an unviable option. But, in reality, MMC homes have lower overall lifecycle costs – project delivery is much faster, so the sale or rent revenue starts to come in much earlier. They also benefit from reduced maintenance costs thanks to the quality-controlled manufacturing process. We can drive further reductions in cost through economies of scale – with more housing providers and developers procuring MMC, we’ll expect costs
