Need advice? Call 07841 464 367
Off Site Construction

News Post

March 27, 2019

Urban Splash Set to Build Modular New Town Housing Scheme

A team led by developer Urban Splash and architects Proctor & Matthews is poised to land what's likely to become the UK's largest modular housing scheme this century. While the appointment has yet to be officially signed off, the duo are in line to win a Homes England competition to design and build around 440 homes at Northstowe in Cambridgeshire, the largest new town since Milton Keynes and a 8ha housing-led regeneration scheme, which is part of the 10,000-home development's second phase.

While not all of the housing units in the scheme - known as phase 2a - are expected to be factory built, the contest's scoring criteria also included MMC (modern methods of construction) capabilities as well as design quality. Urban Splash and Shed KM have developed expertise in MMC with their 'House' brand in Manchester's New Islington and at North Shields in Tyneside, as well as through Urban Splash's acquisition of SIG's modular building arm last year.

Northstowe is a sustainable new town being built on a former Army and RAF base 8km from Cambridge city centre. Its first homes were occupied in 2017.

Providing the competition result is ratified, the Urban Splash team will build out at least 400 homes to the south of the first phase of development with a tenure split of 40 per cent private, 40 per cent shared equity and 20 per cent affordable rent with 60 of the affordable rent homes designated for older people. The team will also be responsible for estate management of the development for 10 years.

The Urban Splash team will also face a serious delivery challenge. The competition terms specify that it is required to develop the scheme at a minimum pace of eight completed homes a month, excluding affordable units. 'Homes England is now pursuing a new process whereby bidders are tied into delivering a particular number of units in a particular timescale,' they said.

'Potentially here you'd have one of the best developers and some of the best architects in the country delivering homes three times as fast as normal production rates, almost without defects. 'If this works, it's a game-changer.'

The scheme is the second major modular development that Urban splash has landed in as many months. At the beginning of the year,the developer and Peel exchanged on a £55 million development to deliver a new waterside residential quarter on the Northbank of the massive Wirral Waters scheme, Merseyside, featuring 347 modular homes.

Article & Image Source: OffsiteHub

Back to Latest News

Latest Industry News

Get the latest news from the world of Off Site Construction sent straight to your inbox. Enter your email address below to sign up to David's newsletter now.

Thank you. You will start receiving our newsletter.

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form. Please try again.