Places for People, one of Britain’s leading placemaking organisations, has
announced a pioneering partnership with ilke Homes to deliver hundreds of
modular homes in the South East and South West, as confidence in offsite
manufacturing (OSM) grows.
Following the largest deal yet for Britain’s modular housing sector in 2019,
ilke Homes and Places for People have struck a two-development deal that will
see the delivery of 472 affordable homes.
With more than 219,000 homes across the UK and some of the country’s most
significant regeneration projects, Places for People’s backing of OSM will be
welcomed as property chiefs respond to calls to speed up delivery, improve
quality and fend off a construction skills crisis.
As part of the agreement and subject to planning permissions, Places for
People will purchase two sites: a 307-home development in Burgess Hill, Sussex;
and a 165-home development in Exmouth Junction, Exeter.
Both developments will provide a range of apartments and two, three and
four-bedroom affordable homes, which will be managed by Places for People and
available for affordable rent or for sale through shared ownership.
Delivering more affordable homes in Exeter and Sussex is
vital, with housing prices rising 7% and 14% respectively in the last year
alone. Average asking prices in Exeter currently stand at £300,521, while
prices in Sussex have reached £421,075.
Scott Black, Group Executive Director – Developments, at Places for People,
said: “By adopting modern methods of construction (MMC), our partnership with a
proven modular business such as ilke Homes allows us to create more affordable,
well-designed mixed-tenure communities across the country – speeding up
delivery, cutting costs and giving our customers unrivalled choice and quality.
The partnership is about pioneering a new way of delivering homes through
making socially-responsible decisions and working with best-in-class partners.
“Our investment in modular housing across our developments and the proposed
acquisition and delivery of Exmouth Junction and Burgess Hill forms an integral
part of Places for People’s ambitious growth strategy to deliver high quality
affordable homes which meet people’s needs.”
Dave Sheridan, Executive Chairman at ilke Homes, said: “We are
extremely pleased to have secured these sizeable opportunities which
demonstrate our continued investment and expansion across the South-East and
South-West regions. These transactions mark a significant achievement for our
modular business, with Burgess Hill being the largest for our business in both
GDV and volume for a forward-sold turn-key delivery package on a single site.
Exmouth Junction is similarly the largest site to date secured and packaged in
the SW region. We are proud to be delivering these homes in partnership with
Places for People, making a considerable and accelerated contribution to the
availability of affordable homes nationwide.”
The news of the deal, which comes two years after ilke Homes entered a
strategic partnership with Places for People, follows last month’s announcement
that the modular housing pioneer has been selected by FTSE 100 firm Boots UK to
deliver the UK’s largest low-rise modular housing development – a 622-home
scheme in Beeston, Nottingham. The deal marked the first time the retailer had
released any part of its Nottingham HQ site holdings for housing.
As part of sweeping
reforms to the planning system, the Government is encouraging the
redevelopment of brownfield sites to bring new investment into areas and
increase housing delivery.
Places for People is a strategic partner with Homes England. In 2018, Places
for People was one of the first organisations to be awarded a grant from Homes
England and will deliver circa 6,000 affordable homes over the next 10 years
through this partnership.
Homes England has also been championing modular housing as a solution to
speeding up the delivery of affordable housing across the UK. Last year, the
Government’s national housing agency announced that housing associations
looking to sign deals under the new £11.5 billion Affordable Housing Programme
will have to commit to using modern methods of construction (MMC) to deliver at
least a quarter of their pipelines.
