PfH to develop offsite manufacturing procurement framework

The Building Better alliance of housing associations has selected Procurement for Housing (PfH) to develop a procurement framework for offsite manufacturing with the aim of building a minimum of 500 homes. 

PfH was appointed after a competitive tender process and will start work immediately.

The offsite construction framework will be informed by Building Better’s research, including over 100 interviews with housing associations and their residents, analysis of the latest offsite innovations and learning from previous projects, which all indicate that greater collaboration and standardisation are key to overcoming the offsite supply challenge.

PfH will use these research findings and its own experience of developing complex procurement projects, to create a demand-led framework that will overcome common barriers around offsite construction in social housing.

Building Better was set up through the National Housing Federation’s Greenhouse innovation programme in 2018, which explored the reasons behind the chronic shortage of affordable homes and the quality issues that plague many new builds.

With a combined stock size of 277,000, the Building Better alliance of 25 housing associations aims to significantly accelerate modern methods of construction amongst social landlords.

‘We wanted a procurement partner with a strong understanding of delivering complicated frameworks that also had experience in modern methods of construction,’ said Building Better’s project director, Helen Greig.

‘Procurement for Housing have a loyal membership-base of over 900 housing providers and a strong understanding of the issues facing the sector and how to overcome challenges through collaborative procurement. We’re looking forward to working with PfH so we can raise the bar around modern methods of construction in the social housing sector and create a framework that delivers on quality as well as price.’

Procurement for Housing’s managing director, Steve Malone, added: ‘One of the biggest challenges around offsite construction has been that social landlords often express an interest and there are small developments but you need a regular, consistent flow of work, in a standardised format, to make offsite construction economically viable.

‘We’ve always known that offsite construction has to be demand-led, not framework-led to work in social housing. Our collaboration with Building Better is all about harnessing demand in the sector and shifting modern methods of construction from a cottage industry to the mainstream.’

Photo Credit – Supplied