Modular homes builder awarded £1.5m contract
East Yorkshire-based offsite construction specialist, Premier Modular, has been secured a £1.5m contract to provide modular housing for homeless families.
The new homes are developed by Be First, the regeneration arm of Barking and Dagenham Council.
The contract was awarded to Premier by main contractor Jerram Falkus and will provide 20 two-bedroom apartments in two blocks, all manufactured offsite in Yorkshire.
Use of an offsite solution for this project has reduced the programme to just 15 weeks for the procurement, manufacturing and fitting out of the apartments, installation on site and commissioning.
The apartments will be fully finished at Premier’s factory in Brandesburton and will be delivered to site complete with bathrooms, kitchens, flooring, partitions, doors, windows and external cladding.
Families in Barking, East London, in urgent need of accommodation will be housed in these apartments.
Due for completion by the end of this year, the buildings will occupy a constrained site in a residential area adjacent to a live railway line.
Premier will install a trackway across an open field to bring in the 250-tonne crane and the apartments.
Marcia Kirlew, development manager at Be First, said: “Modular construction allows us to halve the construction time, with obvious benefits to residents in the neighbouring areas.
“But, more importantly, it allows us to respond to the rapidly developing needs of our local community much faster than we would otherwise, by providing value-for-money, high quality housing for local people.”
Dan Allison, divisional director at Premier Modular, added: “Each two-bedroom apartment occupies a single 12.5 tonne module to optimise efficiency and will be factory tested before arriving on site.
“Premier will only be on site for 25 days which demonstrates the speed of our modular housing solution very well. This is a huge benefit when there is an urgent need for homes for local homeless people in the borough.”
“This is our second emergency housing project to help meet Government targets to address homelessness.
“Also on now site is a £7.5m contract for Buckinghamshire Council for the offsite construction of 58 apartments for homeless people in High Wycombe.”
Ed Bartlett, project lead at Jerram Falkus, said: “It is great to see how Be First has really embraced offsite construction to allow the development of challenging sites such as this, which would be very difficult to develop using in-situ construction methods.
“As a contractor, we appreciate that modular housing is helping us to deliver construction projects faster for our clients, addressing the shortfall in available housing.
“We are looking forward to working with Premier on this project. The apartments will be manufactured and fully finished while we prepare the groundworks on site ready for module installation.”
