Legal and General builds on offsite housebuilding plans

A member of L&G’s executive team has now said that its offsite manufacturing factory could supply other companies in the housing sector, according to Construction News.

This follows the company’s announcement earlier this year, that it planned to invest over half a billion pounds into the construction of housebuilding factories.

At the CN  Developer Forum, L&G Property managing director Bill Hughes commented that L&G could “absolutely” become part of other businesses’ supply chains.

Hughes referred to L&G’s ability to access long-term capital, as an advantage that others in the market might not have, which would enable them to become part of other companies’ supply chains.

L&G launched its entry into the offsite housebuilding market in February, with an investment of £55m into a factory near Leeds – the largest off-site manufacturing facility in Europe.  The company entered into a lease with a local company, Logicor, to take on a 550,000 sq ft warehouse, in Sherburn-in-Elmet.  A report by Inside Housing revealed that the factory was expected to produce 3,000 houses or 4,500 flats per year.  The company has created a new division, called L&G homes, for the purpose of managing these properties.

Hughes confirmed that this site would be the first of half a dozen.

“If we are successful there and we’re seeing more demand, then of course we would do more of it,” he said.

He added that L&G would be keen to control its entire supply chain, to avoid having a “dependency” on others within the chain. He said that could even include provision of timber, by making the cross laminated timber for the properties, at the factory.

L&G is already involved in the residential sector, working with property management company, Touchstone, to help councils supply new build-to-rent housing.