EDAROTH answers government’s ‘call to arms’ by demonstrating scalable social and affordable housing solution

Following the ‘call to arms’ from the Government to get Britain building faster, social and affordable housing developer EDAROTH (Everybody Deserves a Roof Over Their Head) opened its factory doors to housing minister Matthew Pennycook, to demonstrate scalable solutions to deliver new homes.

Left to right: Richard Weeks EDAROTH, Matthew Pennycook MP, Mark Powell EDAROTH, David Newlove Cardinal Logistics

With renewed focus on ramping up housebuilding and removing barriers to development, EDAROTH was able to showcase its off-site manufacturing methods that can deliver additive housing capacity, with the potential to scale up production creating new jobs and investment in the region.

Matthew Pennycook MP visited the manufacturing facility in Bradford, West Yorkshire on Wednesday, where he was able to see at first-hand the company’s pioneering approach to delivering sustainable, net zero housing in half the time it takes using traditional methods - and its role in driving local economic growth through the local supply chain.

The minister was told how a firm plan for delivery will drive production up from 120 homes a year currently to more than 2,500 a year with better access to the pipeline of development opportunities, creating 500 local jobs including up to 40 apprenticeships.

EDAROTH – a subsidiary of global engineering services company AtkinsRéalis – uses off-site construction methods to provide new homes at pace and scale, to help local authorities and housing associations meet their housing challenges and reduce the number of families in temporary accommodation.

The visit came after the Government announced its intention to get more spades in the ground through its Plan for Change, and the minister heard how EDAROTH and AtkinsRéalis have supported the development of the innovative Small Site Aggregator to identify land suitable for development.

The Government has confirmed it will pilot the aggregator working with three local authorities to develop sites which are difficult for traditional house builders, such as brownfield and neglected urban areas, to deliver new social housing using MMC and SME developers.

Factory-based manufacturing methods also ensure the development of homes is more reliable as production is less impacted by adverse weather conditions. In addition, the environmental impact on site is greatly reduced as assembly time is much faster with less disturbance for people living close to the site.

The Bradford factory, operated by Cardinal Logistics, produces high-performance components that form the backbone of EDAROTH’s energy-efficient homes. New homes are currently going up on live sites including Epsom and Bristol with the factory facility prepared to increase output significantly to meet the demand for thousands of homes to support the government’s target of 1.5 million by 2029.

Mark Powell, managing director of EDAROTH, said: “With its recent ‘call to arms’ the government is actively encouraging disruptors in the housing market to demonstrate a model that increases production at pace and scale, and we were able to show the housing minister a deliverable solution that does exactly that to provide additive capacity nationally, as well as local jobs and investment for this part of West Yorkshire.

“We support the government’s approach to housing policy and reform to the planning system but, it’s imperative these changes are implemented as soon as possible in order to create the pipeline for the game-changing programmes including planned new towns, where the EDAROTH model can be rolled out quickly to deliver the social and affordable housing the country needs.”

David Newlove, operations director at Cardinal added: “Working with EDAROTH in this way has enabled us to develop new markets in the housing sector, which has provided an important boost to our business.

“We were pleased to be able to demonstrate to the housing minister that our Bradford factory is well-placed to support the renewed focus on getting Britain building, and we’re ready to increase production with the potential for new jobs and investment that brings.” 

A video of the housing minister's visit to the factory is available on his social media channels here, where he says: “This government is determined not only to build more homes but to build them better and faster. I’m here in Bradford, visiting EDAROTH, an SME that designs, manufactures and delivers precision engineering homes in partnership with social and affordable housing providers. The benefits of this approach is clear: high quality, energy efficient homes can be delivered up to 50% faster than traditional methods, with reduced construction waste and significantly reduced running costs for residents. Standard house building methods will be with us for some time to come, but if we’re to deliver the homes at the scale, pace and quality that England needs, we need to embrace more efficient and effective methods of construction. As a government, we want to see innovative, small and medium house builders thrive, and the uptake of MMC continue to grow.”
 

About EDAROTH

EDAROTH (Everyone Deserves A Roof Over Their Head) provides full life cycle development solutions which focus on delivering social and affordable housing at the point of need. This approach utilises land assets and precision engineering to deliver high-quality homes. 
Housing components are manufactured and assembled off site, before being assembled and erected on site. Off-site-manufactured construction techniques are less disruptive to the surrounding community, faster and more efficient. Just-in-time delivery means large components do not have to be stored on site and are less at risk from poor weather conditions, vandalism or theft. Overall health and safety on site is improved and construction time and costs are reduced, when compared to traditional construction techniques. 
We coordinate all aspects of the build: development appraisal, component sourcing, off-site manufacture, design engineering, assembly contractors, through to the final, finished product. 
Find out more - www.edaroth.co.uk or follow us on LinkedIn

About AtkinsRéalis    

 
Created by the integration of long-standing organizations dating back to 1911, AtkinsRéalis is a world-class engineering services and nuclear company dedicated to engineering a better future for our planet and its people. We create sustainable solutions that connect people, data and technology to transform the world's infrastructure and energy systems. We deploy global capabilities locally to our clients and deliver unique end-to-end services across the whole life cycle of an asset including consulting, advisory & environmental services, intelligent networks & cybersecurity, design & engineering, procurement, project & construction management, operations & maintenance, decommissioning and capital. The breadth and depth of our capabilities are delivered to clients in strategic sectors such as Engineering Services, Nuclear and Capital.  News and information are available at www.atkinsrealis.com or follow us on LinkedIn.