Principal Investigator:
Martin Edge

Researchers:
Richard Laing; Anthony Craig Jonathan Scott;

The central idea behind this project is that, if we want to improve our new housing, we need to overcome people's resistance to the old ideas of pre-fabrication and standardisation. The main focus of the project is on the purchaser and end user of housing, that is the owner-occupier. The aims of the research will be achieved in a two stage process, funding for the first stage of which has been granted by EPSRC and DETR. The first stage involves the development and testing of new, predominantly financial models through which the resistance to pre-fabrication in housing can be eased. The second stage involves the practical, on-site demonstration of both product and process developments which can increase market penetration of, and confidence in, pre-fabrication and standardisation. The second stage is a 'near-market', developmental phase which, it is hoped, will be carried out with industrial sponsorship.

There are many potential barriers to standardisation and pre-fabrication, some of which are historical and may not now be based on any real problems with modern methods. The project starts from the idea that the main barrier to the potential owner-occupier is an entirely rational economic one. This resistance relates to the dominant nature of the home in the UK as an investment, rather than simply a consumer good. Therefore, the main focus of the research is on the investment characteristics of both new forms of housing and the future client. The main aim of the first stage is to create and test new financial models for both owner-occupied and social housing, as a basis for the second stage development and demonstration of a practical housing project.

The opportunity to focus on developing new financial models is afforded precisely because of the potential introduction of new physical types of housing employing greater degrees of pre-fabrication and standardisation. Key aims in this latter process are to increase efficiency in the construction industry and reduce costs. These cost reductions, as well as moves towards more flexible 'lifetime homes' and houses with different life-cycle characteristics, provide both a financial resource and a challenge to the idea of the home as investment. The research will meet this challenge by developing dynamic links between construction, manufacturing, financial and client sectors through the medium of a 'Technical Forum'.

The project is based on an argument which goes as follows:

1. Problems in the engineering of prefabricated housing have been largely overcome and tried and tested technical and design solutions are currently available, whilst new ones are under development.
2. Many of these solutions offer advantages in terms of cost savings and improvements in the functionality of the living environment.
3. There remains a client resistance which presents a barrier beyond which manufacturers and constructors cannot step with ease.
4. That barrier is a perceptual one and can be summarised as: 'an acceptable pre-fabricated house is one which does not look as though it is prefabricated'.
5. Client resistance includes an emotive, irrational element.
6. 6. The primary generator of resistance, which has a sound economic grounding, lies in the nature of owner-occupation, in which the home is primarily an investment, rather than a consumer good or a living environment.
7. This resistance is mirrored in the social sector, with risk-averse clients and a separation between capital and revenue budgets.
8. Currently, it is expected that it will be the client for innovative housing, rather than the construction or financial sectors, who is the primary absorber of any risks associated with procuring a ‘non-standard’ house type.
9. Overcoming barriers to pre-fabrication and other innovations in housing involves reconstructing the predominant financial model which ensures that construction, unlike other manufacturing industries, is perceived as a generator of capital investments.
10. The current financial climate, in which the consumer is becoming more sophisticated in using financial markets, offers the possibility of constructing and marketing such new financial models and products.

These ideas give us the possibility of creating financial models which allow us to investigate the potential 'trade-offs' between the house as investment and other, perhaps more ephemeral constructs. That is, the financial model is the measure against which other resistances can be gauged. It is argued that financial and investment issues need to be tackled before other barriers to standardisation and prefabrication in housing can be addressed.

Other Investigators:
Prof. Robert Pollock; Dr. Assem Al-Hajj; Dr. Chris Andrew; Graeme Slaven