Bromford strikes £100m deal with two offsite firms

Insight & comment18.08.223:40 PM by James Wilmore

Bromford has revealed that it has signed contracts worth around £100m with two offsite firms to deliver at least 250 homes over the next three years.

Yorkshire-based Ilke Homes has signed a number of deals with housing associations (picture: Ilke Homes)

The 45,000-home landlord said it has agreed deals with Ilke Homes and Hadley Group to provide new properties across the West Midlands and the West of England as part of the four-year contracts.

Fifty homes will be delivered in the first year, while the aim is for at least 250 to have been handed over within three years, according to Bromford. However a spokesperson said this will depend on land availability.

It is understood that the two contracts are similar in value for the two manufacturers.

Yorkshire-based Ilke, which is backed by private equity firm TDR Capital, specialises in ‘category one’ volumetric modern methods of construction (MMC), which means its produces fully built homes in its factory. The group has signed a number of deals with housing associations, including a £100m joint venture with Places for People in 2019.

Hadley Group offers an offsite fully load-bearing prefabricated steel panel system, which can be used on residential flats, according to its website.

The contracts are a welcome boost to the still-fledgling MMC sector, which has been hit by a string of negative headlines this year.

It includes Homes England-backed House by Urban Splash going into administration and housebuilding giant Countryside last month pulling the plug on a new £20m MMC factory.

Under the Bromford deals, the first homes to be delivered will be a 28-home zero-carbon development in Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire through Bromford’s in-house construction team and Ilke. The homes will include air source heat pumps and solar panels.

“Utilising modern methods of construction is key to us delivering the number of affordable, energy-efficient homes we are aiming to build during the next five years,” said Mike Craggs, development and asset management innovation lead at Bromford.

The landlord is one of the housing association sector’s biggest developers and is aiming to build 7,000 new homes over the next five years.

Bromford launched a £50m MMC framework last September, but a spokesperson was unable to confirm to Inside Housing whether the new contracts are part of this initiative.

Last year Bromford secured £240m of grant through the government’s Affordable Homes Programme, which means that 25% of new homes have to be delivered using MMC. The group confirmed in its annual report that a quarter of homes under its strategic partnership with Homes England will be built using MMC.

The group has previously worked with MMC specialist Totally Modular on a development in Gloucestershire.

In its last full year, Bromford reported a rise in revenue and surplus as it exceeded its development target.