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London councils hand out £40m modular homes contract for homeless
A group of London boroughs aiming to provide modular homes for the capital’s homeless have handed out a £40m contract to a supplier.
Pan-London Accommodation Collaborative Enterprise (PLACE), a not-for-profit company launched by London councils last year, has picked Belfast-headquartered Extraspace Solutions to supply 200 modular homes for the scheme by 2021.
PLACE, which was launched with £11m of funding from London mayor Sadiq Khan, is aiming to boost the quality and availability of the capital’s temporary accommodation.
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Four London boroughs – Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Ealing and Redbridge – have so far agreed to use the modular options, a spokesperson confirmed to Inside Housing. The scheme currently has “registered interest” from 16 boroughs, the spokesperson added.
The first homes are expected to be delivered this year in one of the four initial boroughs. As part of the agreement, the sites must be available for at least five years but the units could be moved between sites if the land gets earmarked for development.
It is hoped more homes can be delivered this way if the initial 200-home scheme is successful.
The homes will be a mixture of two and three-bedroom properties, which PLACE will own. The group previously said this was a “more cost-effective option for boroughs than they would get from leasing units directly from a supplier”.
London currently has around 54,000 households living in temporary accommodation.
Darren Rodwell, executive member for housing and planning at London Councils, said: “This is the first time UK local authorities have jointly procured modular housing for this purpose and it shows London government’s determination to create better housing outcomes for homeless families.”
Eleanor Moloney, lead designer at Extraspace Solutions, added: “Our precision-manufactured modular houses will deliver the quality of permanent homes, meeting the London Plan’s space standards, and can be relocated to the site of most need.”
The company has previously worked on a residential scheme for Ealing Council.
