Legal & General Homes has signed a long-term lease with Logicor on a 51,000 m2 warehouse in Sherburn-in-Elmet, near the A1(M) between Leeds and Selby (and about 20 miles south of Yorkon and the Portakabin Group).
Initially employing 400 to 500 local people, it expects to deliver its first houses from the factory in June.
LGC said that it had assembled a team of experts from around Europe and had been gathering market intelligence on different building systems.
It has reportedly invested £55m into the enterprise and plans to make 3,000 houses a year that are completely fitted out in the factory – carpets, curtains and all. Despite the factory context, the houses will all be bespoke, LGC said, although with standardised componentry.
Legal & General Capital managing director Paul Stanworth said: “Sustainable, durable modern materials and proven technology will enable us to create high-quality homes meeting a wide range of housing needs and help solve the UK’s housing crisis. Modern modular housing in the UK has so far been restricted to the top end of the market: the scale of our Sherburn facility will enable many more people to benefit from new, environmentally-friendly construction techniques which have already become mainstream in Europe.”
Tom Ground, chief executive of Legal & General Homes, added: “Legal & General Homes aims to deliver a new solution to the problems we face in the UK, addressing the shortage of suitable, affordable and sustainable housing by manufacturing higher quality, energy efficient, lower cost housing.”
Although Tom Ground has a finance and investment background within Legal & General, he originally trained as an architect.
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