Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is essential to delivering the UK’s high-performance homes quickly
Despite several hurdles in its adoption, Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is once again being hailed as the solution to Britain’s housing crisis. Brian Adams, Senior Director of Sales and Business Development at Arclin discusses why a clear strategy from government, together with innovations such as weather resistant barriers, will be vital if MMC is to finally fulfil its potential.
Using MMC for home building offers many benefits to industry, government, homeowners and indeed, the country. These range from greater quality control, cost efficiencies and better building performance, through to improved material efficiency, reduced waste, and higher standards of health and safety.
Perhaps though, the most important benefits are speed of delivery and reduced labour requirements and costs. Once up and running MMC allows for simultaneous off-site manufacturing and on-site construction, which can reduce build times from months to just weeks. This means that MMC is ideally placed to address the housing shortage.
While producing homes in a factory-controlled environment means they can also be produced to a higher standard, with fewer skilled trades. This is a significant advantage given the well-publicised skills gap.
So, if MMC offers so many benefits, why has it struggled to become established in the domestic housing market?
Government support is essential for the growth of MMC
Simply put, the government needs to acquire a much deeper understanding of how MMC works, and then develop a clear strategy and demonstrate leadership, if the sector is to support more housebuilding. This was the conclusion of a letter from the House of Lords Built Environment Committee sent to the government in January 2024, following an inquiry into the collapse and closure of several Category 1 MMC companies.
Writing later in the year, the Committee’s Chair, Lord Moylan, said the same concerns remained, even after the change of government following July 2024’s election.
Despite this, MMC is clearly a priority for government. Its quango, Skills England stated the expansion of MMC will be essential due to the predicted shortfall of skilled trades; a figure that will stand at 252,000 by 2028 according to forecasts by the Construction Industry Training Board.
At the same time, Homes England has set out its ‘five-S’ approach to supporting MMC, encompassing standardisation, safety and assurance, soft levers, stimulating the market and scaling up. The latter two are essential, because a clear pipeline of work is required to keep factories operational and without it, scaling-up is impossible.
It’s worth noting that there are seven categories of MMC. At one end is Category One, essentially three dimensional ‘boxes’ that can be delivered to site with or without services and fixtures already in place. At the other, there’s Category Six, traditional materials that have been modified to speed up construction and Category Seven, systems and processes designed to remove unnecessary work by streamlining the build.
While there’s no one clear route to solving the housing crisis – the government has committed to build 1.5 million homes by the end of Parliament – it’s clear that MMC will play a role. So how can it succeed this time?
Innovation is essential to MMC’s future
Fundamentally, innovation will be crucial in securing MMC’s long term role in British housebuilding. Building performance standards are becoming stricter, particularly around energy efficiency. Cavity wall widths can only increase so much to meet the stricter standards, whereas offsite solutions can be designed and built to meet those standards more easily.
Then there’s England and Wales’s obsession with traditional block and brick construction. Given the current shortage of 33,000 bricklayers, it makes sense for architects to switch specifications to timber frame MMC construction. This is especially true for those working with SME housebuilders who may not be able to command the wages of the volume developers, so may be hit harder by the shortage.
This means the industry will need innovative new solutions for timber frame homes that can meet the performance demands of new-build housing. One example of this is the development of a new weather resistant barrier for timber frame walls, SIP systems and cassettes, Arclin’s, Arctek® Dryshell™.
The overlays are applied in the factory in a continuous layer, creating a durable, high-performance weathertight barrier that provides protection to wood from the instant it is applied.
Furthermore, adopting a production line approach speeds up the installation of a weathertight barrier, meaning that skilled trades can concentrate on what they do best – whether that’s in the factory or onsiteDespite several hurdles in its adoption, Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is once again being hailed as the solution to Britain’s housing crisis.
MMC can present a powerful solution to Britain’s housing crisis, providing innovation and government strategy goes hand in hand. With the right support, a clear direction and smart material advancements like weather resistant overlays, MMC will finally be able to take a place at the heart of British housebuilding by enabling housebuilders to build faster, smarter and more sustainably.
To find out more information on how our performance overlay technology can support your timber frame building project contact us here.