An important month for the future of housing in the UK!

For several months the UK government has talked about their plans for social housing.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps has talked about a number of initiatives which he hopes will stimulate growth in the sector. The freeing up of local government land is a positive move to give a basis for new development. The attempt to reduce planning restrictions and burocracy is another attempt to encourage development.

Whilst all of these initiatives are encouraging, the reality is there has been little movement in increased development. Demand remains high, so where does the problem lie?

I believe the issue is lack of funds. The private sector is keen to work with registered landlords to deliver schemes, however they still face the challenge of raising funds via traditional banking as UK banks are prioritising repairing their own balance sheets before investing in any new assets.

Currently, RSLs are waiting for the Government’s announcement of grant allocations for future development, which has led to a lack of activity from them. Ministerial sign off for these budgets is scheduled for July 19^th with notification of budgetary content on July 20^th, which will hopefully lead to RSLs embracing the Government’s proposition of affordable rents, as Housing Associations will know what their allocation is, and will be more comfortable with undertaking meaningful action.

Most RSLs are very positive about their submissions and there are few who believe they will not get a positive settlement. Clearly this can’t be the case and there is going to be more disappointment in the market place than celebration, as the Government has minimal funds to allocate to this sector, in itself one that holds high funding aspirations. So, by the end of July, we should begin to see a way forward and a level of clarity and understanding in this sector.

Those who have had funding allocated will be able to progress with their plans. Those who have been less successful will have to think about alternative ways forward, including making the affordable rent model work and partnering with the private sector.

New methods of delivery will need to be considered. Our Spacehus product has been in the marketplace now for six months, following two years of development. The industry has responded very well to it, however, due to lack of development, firm decisions have been few and far between. We remain optimistic that once there is clarity in the industry, there will be a steady level of enquiries where we can deliver these low cost, low energy timber frame houses to those in need currently sitting on the housing waiting list.

Rob Charlton, _space group CEO

The low energy timber frame solution that costs just £80k...

Note - this blog was first submitted to e-news source Place North West for their Green Week feature.

At _space group, we have been working on an intensive research and development programme in which our aim was to develop a housing model both environmentally friendly in the strongest possible terms, and cost effective. The result of this has been Spacehus – our timber framed, offsite manufacture, modular building, which complies with the Sustainable Homes Code at level 4 and can be delivered for £80,000.

The costs have been broken down into three areas – materials £51,000, labour, £16,000 and plant/overhead/profit, £13,000. We have not included land purchase costs or site infrastructure in this price (however we have accounted for a raft foundation solution), as part of our goal with Spacehus is to encourage collaborative working. While the site infrastructure is not included in the cost, we have calculated onsite labour costs, and these are greatly reduced thanks to the offsite manufacture nature of the scheme. Not only does this have the clear benefit of being able to reduce site time to just 20 days, the eco-benefit is that we are delivering a scheme that drastically reduces the associated waste and pollution normally seen on site during a traditional build.

What makes Spacehus different is that we used manufacturing principles to develop it. We looked at techniques used in the automotive and aerospace industries, and we found that an offsite manufacture approach is an environmentally sound one, with this assembly line approach being more efficient, saving time during pre-construction and creating fewer components, which saves on waste and excess building parts. Indeed, each Spacehus is made up of just 19 components, with separate bathroom pods that are fitted during the process.

We have opted to focus on using an integrated, limited supply chain for delivering Spacehus. Cutting down on suppliers provides significant eco benefits as each part of the manufacture and assembly process generates fewer carbon miles.

Swedish timber framed housing manufacturers Trivselhus have developed a Climate Shield for the concept, which provides the building with a tight external envelope, dramatically cuts internal energy waste and helps us to provide potential Spacehus owners with what we forecast to be energy bills of just £10 per week.

We are using UK manufacturer EJ Badekabiner to create the bathroom pods, as well as the roofs and floors and we intend to use our own construction company, _space build, for the assembly, ensuring that the team constructing the scheme are familiar with it from inception.

We have used an efficient condensing gas boiler to heat the building. We spent considerable time deciding on the best heat source to use, as we needed to balance capital cost with energy savings.

With the gas boiler the house costs £10 per week to run. It is also possible to retro fit photovoltaic panels to the roof through a feed in tariff investment arrangement. This could potentially supply the electricity for the dwelling, meaning the only cost would be £2 per week for gas.

This approach is the future of the industry as it illustrates how both the housing and construction industries can bounce back from a time of crisis with a solution that is leaner, greener and better for the environment.

The future is Spacehus - a visualisation of a potential Spacehus scheme

Designs on expanding the Spacehus range

A visualisation of what a _space scola could look like

Work has been progressing apace on the expansion of the Spacehus empire and as we at Spacehus News like keeping people up to date with our progress, we thought we'd share some of our news.

As you know, we've been working on the Spacehus concept of timber frame houses since our initial research and development exercise in 2008. This research has helped us to develop the Spacehus range, so that we can now offer several different types of homes, including a 650sq ft two bedroom home and a 925sq ft three bedroom home, the latter costing just £80,000, an achievement we're very proud of, and something we hope will be able to provide many people with the perfect affordable home.

However, we've always known that the format we've applied to timber frame houses can be applied across other sectors. Our current focus is on the education range, which we've decided to call _space scola. Our team are working on concept designs now (see our drawing on this blog!), and we believe that this "kit of parts" approach to education is the perfect antidote to the problems of the education system and the legacy it has been left by BSF. Since the coalition government took power, much has been made of the problems surrounding the system, the cost to the taxpayer and its inefficiency as a process. While we (and many other architects) believe that the procurement process under BSF was too lengthy, we as a nation still have a need for education buildings, and that's because the premise behind BSF was to ensure that we could provide the next generation with a school estate fit for their personal development. The fact that there's less money available to do this hasn't changed the need, but the nation's architects need to learn how to deliver this estate better. This is where the "timber frame houses" approach comes in.

Just as we use manufacturing processes to create Spacehus, we can do the same for _space scola. The same benefits of a quicker build time, reduction of risk, energy efficiency and creation of a bespoke solution still apply here, and by designing different modules - the classroom, the sports hall, performance area, etc - to be added to the school as the LA and Head require, we have created the instant ability for any schools to grow organically, at as fast or slow a pace as finances allow. And while this is something that is currently in concept design stage, meaning that total costs have yet to be fixed, we are confident that the marked savings Spacehus is able to offer potential homeowners, can be reflected in _space scola.

Our vision for the _space scola is to ensure that it is delivered using sustainable materials, sourcing timber responsibly and is a concept that makes the most of PassivHaus principles so that the air tightness of the building envelope is at its optimum and the school can help its team make savings.

We're looking forward to bringing you more news on this exciting development, so, excuse the pun, but please just remember to watch this _space!

Affordable Housing - the Spacehus way

A visualisation of a proposed Spacehus affordable home scheme

We are increasingly being told about the shortage of affordable housing in the UK, and while the previous government tried to kickstart a social housing development programme, spending millions of pounds, holding competitions and generally trying to build momentum, annual targets were still missed year on year, and the social housing waiting list continued to grow.

When the coalition government took power a year ago, the waiting list for housing stood at 5 million, creating a situation that required the government to decide how it would move forward quickly. Compounding the problem, housing ministers have faced a growing need for affordable housing over the past year, but have a lack of capital with which to provide it.

The government’s approach to the issue has been to allow Housing Associations to charge 80% of the market rental rate in a particular area. This approach is an indication that the government is reluctant to issue grants or raise new capital, and would rather develop a housing programme based upon revenue costs. This opposes the previous government’s strategy of allowing the Homes and Communities Agency, a government-created and funded organisation, to provide grants to Housing Associations which, in turn, charged an unrealistic £80 per week rent, with the remainder of the cost topped up with a capital grant.

During the past year however, there has been some denial from the Housing Associations about this strategy transition. Some of them have not understood what the coalition’s strategy was, and many have been waiting for the grant system to reappear. In this period there has been no development at all and the programme of social housing has fallen even further behind.

Only now are some Housing Associations realising that new homes will have to be delivered in a very different way to what they have been used to. Land values are very unpredictable and for projects to be viable, the land value would have to be incredibly low. The Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) also need the support of the private sector to pull together the appraisal and develop the investment over a period of time.

Housing Associations need to have a home solution that can be cost efficient, both in erection and performance, but they need to be quickly and efficiently erected, in order to effectively reduce waiting lists.

At _space group, we believe that the development of Spacehus responds to all of these issues.

Consider this: Spacehus consists of a range of timber framed houses including a 925ft² 3 bedroom house, an 800ft² 3 bedroom house and a 650ft² 2 bedroom house. The 925ft² house costs less than £80,000 including a standard foundation solution, and each of these properties is energy efficient, with energy bills coming to just £10 a week.

These timber framed houses are manufactured in Sweden to the highest standards and use a series of pre-constructed components which are assembled on site. These properties can be built in less than 20 days.

With a fixed cost for the house itself, the only variable a Spacehus scheme has are the roads and service connections, giving far more predictability to the appraisal. These properties can be delivered in any part of the UK with no variation in cost.

The HCA are currently reviewing all applications from social landlords across the UK for grant funding. Hopefully this small amount of grant funding will kickstart some developments, but will also draw a line under the wait for significant grants.

Hopefully RSLs will be innovative in their approach to finding solutions to the housing problem which the UK currently finds itself in, and _space group is eager to assist in solving this problem.