4 Foreword More Homes Through Manufacture A Housing Forum Working Group Report Foreword David Lunts Executive Director of Housing and Land, Greater London Authority and observer to The Housing Forum Board We need to build a lot more homes and we need to build differently to do so. That is obvious when you look at the challenges we face in seriously stepping up supply. Land shortages, skills shortages and materials shortages are all massive constraints and each points to the need for a step change in ways to deliver new housing - not least in embracing faster, better and more modern methods of construction (MMC), the benefi ts of which are highlighted in this report. But is the industry ready to embrace the new? It certainly won’t be easy. Some of the methodology is still unproven at scale and the jury is still out over cost effi ciencies, for example. But if we are serious about increasing the rates of house building - and to do so over the long term - we need to work harder to make this step change possible. There is certainly a role for the public sector to help in sponsoring and leading this change. It could, for example, become a condition to use responsible modern methods of construction as a condition of building on public land, and grant funded housing associations could come together to use their collective buying muscle to provide a steady pipeline of opportunities for manufacturers to invest in production technologies at scale. The new Housing Zones too, which have recently been launched to accelerate new housing in regeneration areas, could also provide useful opportunities to support MMC at scale. The industry is slowly adapting to new construction techniques and this should be welcomed. But far more can be done, and needs to be done, to embrace change at scale if we are to ramp up home building to the levels we need. This report is a useful and timely signpost in that journey.
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