Northstowe’s new neighbourhood of Inholm features prefabricated housing built in the old SIG factory in Alfreton, Derbyshire and put on lorries for the 100-mile journey to site.
The houses at Inholm are designed by architect Shed K.M. for developer House by Urban Splash, which is a joint venture of Japan’s biggest house builder, Sekisui House, and UK property developer Urban Splash.
Urban Splash bought the old SIG factory in Alfreton in 2018 and here has capacity to make 400 homes.
At Inholm, those buying off-plan have a choice of internal layouts before the properties are put together in the factory.
Inholm represents the second phase of Northstowe. It is next to the new education campus and where the town centre will be located.
Andrew Cross, project lead for House by Urban Splash at Northstowe, said: “From a construction point of view, the speed largely comes from the timing of the groundworks and the factory works happening at the same time rather than in sequence like they would on a traditional building site.
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“The benefits for residents being that by the point at which the homes arrive on-site for finishing touches a lot of the major groundworks and messy work has completed. The homes are also delivered in batches of around six to nine homes, so we can also complete a street scene much quicker for when homeowners start to arrive and occupy their new home.”
Chris Shaw, delivery director for House by Urban Splash, added: “We’ve been pioneering this concept for a few years now, delivering homes in this way to customers in Manchester, Birmingham, North Shields and Salford. It’s great to extend that offering and bring the first modular homes to this new neighbourhood.”
House by Urban Splash has financial backing from both Sekisui House and the UK government, via Homes England.
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