Blogs

SWPA have been working with Bristol Housing Festival for several years, most recently we have partnered together with Constructing Modern Methods to create our latest procurement solution – the Low Carbon Offsite Housing Construction DPS.

Jez Sweetland, Project Director at Bristol Housing Festival has been exploring innovation cultures in Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), read all about it and see the Top 10 Tips!

World Religion Day was held on the 16^th  of January this year, and although Team SWPA were unable to meet in person to acknowledge and celebrate, the spirit of the day is embodied within our team.

The FDIS and BM Trada certifications are two of Ventro's most prominent certifications and demonstrate their competence in inspecting and installing fire doors and fire stopping. They also have a range of certifications for other fire safety works, most notably BAFE and participation in the Building a Safer Future charter, along with many others.

Last week, on the 3^rd of December, it was Fuel Poverty Awareness Day. The statistics behind the day are shocking to say the least.

There has been great progress in the delivery of homes using MMC, in the South West, over the past two years and many organisations now have clear plans to deliver a significant number of homes using MMC in their future programmes.

The theme for this year’s Black History Month is Proud to Be; at SWPA we can’t think of a better message to get behind. On a personal level we hope that our colleagues, partners, customers, and suppliers all feel proud of who they are and their heritage – and that they can express it in the inclusive environment we strive for as part of LHC.

As we are all aware social value is a wide-ranging topic which has become more prevalent in the public sector since the inception of the Social Value Act (2012). The squeeze on public sector budgets has exacerbated the need for social value to help generate the desired value for money outcomes.

With the many challenges and pressures facing the housing market today – and in particular those faced by the social housing sector – it’s time for providers to start exploring new solutions.

Take up of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is slower for the social sector than amongst private companies, but mounting and almost overwhelming issues demand that all possible avenues are investigated.

Housing First is a housing led support approach which gives people with a history of entrenched or repeat homelessness their own home and unconditional, intensive support to maintain it. It was first developed in New York in the early 1990s and has since been adopted across the world. Finland, where Housing First is national government policy, is the only EU country to reduce street homelessness in the past decade.

In this article, David Harris, Managing Director of Premier Modular, looks at the drivers for the increase in demand for offsite building solutions and how the approach is addressing some of the key challenges in UK construction.