Building on a pledge to support Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) in its Autumn Budget of 2017, the 2019 Conservative party manifesto reaffirmed the target of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s and made explicit commitment to support MMC. The need to accelerate housebuilding is a critical driver for greater adoption of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). Responding to this need, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has a programme of work to support MMC, including through its housing funding and land programmes, and to tackle strategic barriers, notably the lack of product standardisation across the industry and the difficulties in obtaining product warranties - and therefore insurance and mortgages.
This policy commitment towards greater use of MMC, however, is coupled with the recognition that the existing regulatory framework was set out in relation to traditional construction. There may therefore be aspects of the system of regulation which are not tailored to MMC, or gaps which could result in issues with building quality, performance, and safety.
The aim of this research is therefore to investigate potential risks to safety and performance posed by volumetric construction and identify potential options for mitigating those risks.
The scope of this research is limited to one type of MMC – offsite manufactured volumetric construction. Volumetric construction is a type of offsite construction, whereby fully enclosed, six-sided building modules – i.e., floor, four walls and ceiling – are manufactured offsite in a factory and assembled onsite, most commonly by stacking and/or joining together. Modules can also be five-sided, without a floor or roof. Once site installation is complete, in most cases, buildings will need only limited additional work to be considered complete and ready to use.
This research has identified risks that may occur across each stage of the modular construction lifecycle, and cross-cutting risks which underpin every stage. There is not enough evidence to estimate the frequency with which these risks occur, and it should not be construed that this report is stating that all these risks occur on every volumetric construction project. While the scope of this research relates to risks in volumetric construction, it is emphasised that many of the risks identified are also present in traditional construction.
Citation
Brennan, J., Vokes, C., Massey, T., Duncheva, M., Plowas, W., Livingstone, A., Reid, A., Bros Williamson, J., & Hairstans, R. (2024). Volumetric Modular Construction research. Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
