You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
A behind-the-scenes look at Accord's homes factory
Offsite manufacturing has been floated as a way to speed up housing delivery and address the skills shortage. Housing association Accord has embraced it by operating its own factory where it builds home for itself and others. Simon Brandon paid it a visit. Photography by Simon Brandon
Alan Yates, executive commercial director at Accord, who oversees the group’s LoCal Homes offsite manufacturing facility in Walsall, stands in front of homes built in – and just across the road from – the factory.
LoCal Homes team members use nail guns to affix cladding to the outside of the timber frames. The factory employs 25 local people and manufactures 275 homes a year – one for each working day.
The factory floor – in the foreground are stacks of Scandinavian timber, the production line’s main raw material. Before the factory opened, Accord used to import whole factory-built homes from Scandinavia.
Jenna Webster, the only woman on the factory floor today, stands in front of the frame-building machine. She has worked here since the factory opened seven years ago. “I like working with lads,” she says.
Team member Dave Harpin cuts slabs of rockwool insulation to fit inside the timber frames.
Mitch Bradley began working in the factory in February this year.
Martin Loynes fixes brick-effect cladding to a frame. Accord has focused on employing local people “who are some way from the job market”, says Mr Yates. “This has been a key area of success for us.”
On our visit, Alvis Grods is operating the CNC saw, which cuts the fresh timber to size, ready to be bolted together into frames.
Team member Carl Price in front of a lorryload of finished panels stacked outside the factory. These are waiting to be shipped to a development in Bodmin, Cornwall.
Once insulated, the finished panels are stacked by crane, ready for transportation.
LoCal Homes is opening a new £1m factory a short drive from the current site in November this year. It will employ 100 people, with a manufacturing capacity of 1,000 new homes a year.
