Swan / NU living has announced the acquisition of a newly built industrial unit to expand its modular housing services, opposite their existing factory in Basildon, Essex
This expanded capacity will not only allow Swan to build high-quality modular homes for its own secured development pipeline but also will position NU living, in time, to provide additional capacity to support Swan’s partners and other stakeholders in meeting the growing expectation from Government for a proportion of modular housing to be incorporated in their own programmes.
With both factories in full operation, NU living will eventually be capable of delivering over 1,000 modular homes each year.
The second NU living factory is expected, by the time it is in full production, to create over 120 additional jobs in Essex and will see further significant investment by Swan in training and skills at a time when local investment in retraining and new local opportunities is critical to the businesses wider response to Covid-19.
It is expected that Swan’s second modular factory will commence production in Spring 2021.
Growing focus on Modern Methods of Construction
Geoff Pearce, Swan’s deputy chief executive, said: ” The acquisition of our second factory is a key strategic move, which will give us the additional capacity to build at height using a steel-framed approach and to increase the use of pre-manufacturing and componentisation which will deliver more high-quality homes, more quickly.
“We were early adopters of this way of working and we have worked hard since 2017 to realise the opportunities and benefits that modular construction can bring.
“We are confident that, in line with our Corporate Strategy aims, this expansion will help us deliver the majority of our future developments using precision-engineered, low carbon homes.
“Factory 2 makes us well placed to support the Government’s growing focus on MMC – including the recent announcement that development programmes funded through the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 include at least 25% off-site manufacture and, in time, will enable us to support our partners to meet their modular delivery targets also.
