The discovery of crumbling panels made from reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in buildings across the country over the past 12 months has meant many have had to be evacuated.
Schools and colleges have been particularly affected, with 234 across England, and dozens more in Scotland and Wales, having to close classrooms.
For modular building manufacturers like Premier Modular, the crisis is an opportunity. Premier Modular says that 2024 is proving to be “a knockout year” for its rental division.
In the first three months of the year it secured £15m of rental education projects.
Further successes within the health and commercial and industrial sectors were achieved by the company’s rental division in Q1 2024 too after it secured a 35% uplift in project value across all projects in comparison to the same period of 2023.
The increase was driven by the company’s installation of more than 8,000 sqm of rental building solutions which included key projects such as the second phase of facilities delivered to Merrylands Primary School in Basildon. This was the latest of three schools that Premier Modular has supported in the wake of the RAAC crisis.
This level of activity is set to continue after the company booked an order for two three-storey classroom buildings for London South Bank University.
RAAC is effectively the new covid for companies like Premier Modular. It also enjoyed a spike in demand for temporary modular building hire at the height of the covid crisis in 2021 for testing centres. Turnover stabilised in 2022 although fleet utilisation dropped off. This year is looking stronger than ever though.
Premier Modular chief executive David Harris said: “Our rental division is going from strength to strength as evidenced by our efforts in Q1. We are seeing first-hand the growing recognition for rental building solutions as a greener and more flexible path to expanding or reinforcing organisational estates – be that a school, airport or hospital.
“At this critical point in the net zero journey, greater attention must be paid to the impact of our built environment. Rental building solutions provide a time- and cost-efficient answer.”
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