Homes England - MD Panel - MMC Pilot Site Research Commission - National Portfolio

Homes England wants to provide a body of verifiable data on the performance of different types of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). At present there is not enough impartial information widely available to give the industry the confidence to widely increase the uptake of MMC.

To remedy this Homes England is encouraging developers to commit to advanced levels of MMC on eight sites totalling almost 1,500 homes. As a condition of the development of this land we are mandating that the sites will have to be subject to research and performance monitoring to understand the benefits (and the potential draw backs) of delivering housing using different types of MMC technology.

This study will provide a body of research which can answer the questions frequently asked by housebuilders, contractors, commissioners, financers, insurers, etc... as regards issues such as cost of delivery, the energy performance of MMC homes, the prevalence of delivery defects, material wastage levels, etc... by monitoring the projects from foundations through to one-year post occupancy. This data and analysis needs to be in a format that can be readily shared with industry, local & national government and other interested parties to provide clear evidence on how MMC performs against traditional build.

It is intended that this landmark study provides a template for how the industry and other partners can measure the performance of MMC in the future, creating a substantial body of data and encouraging the uptake of MMC more widely. Beyond measuring the physical benefits of MMC, Homes England would also like to analyse the costs and monetised benefits in order to better understand the economic rationale for MMC.