L&G launches modular housing business

Legal & General Capital has launched a modular housing business, Legal & General Homes, which will seek to modernise the home building industry by providing precision engineered factory manufactured houses.

The UK has an annual output of around 130,000 homes, with a requirement for 250,000.

Legal & General is aiming to build thousands of modular houses to help tackle this long term problem.

Paul Stanworth, managing director of Legal & General Capital, said: “Sustainable, durable modern materials and proven technology will enable us to create high-quality homes meeting a wide range of housing needs and help solve the UK’s housing crisis. Modern modular housing in the UK has so far been restricted to the top end of the market: the scale of our Sherburn facility will enable many more people to benefit from new, environmentally friendly construction techniques which have already become mainstream in Europe.”

The new factory will produce high quality homes tailored to meet customers’ designs and needs, ranging from 20-storey apartment blocks to rows of terraced, semi-detached and detached houses.

The technology has proven a hit right across Europe, including countries such as Austria, Germany and Scandinavia where off-site manufacturing of housing is increasingly common place.

Time spent building on site will be reduced by more than 70%, compared to traditional techniques, manufacturing sections in advance and delivering them to the site to be installed.

Tom Ground, chief executive of Legal & General Homes, said: “Legal & General Homes aims to deliver a new solution to the problems we face in the UK, addressing the shortage of suitable, affordable and sustainable housing by manufacturing higher quality, energy efficient, lower cost housing.”