Modular Housing: TopHat looking to the future

Modular housing is viewed by many in the housing industry as the most effective way to delivery cost effective housing in the UK. Now being adopted by many significant housebuilders, this modern method of creating houses is being used by a growing list of financial institutions to help them move into the supply of housing. TopHat is a UK leader in technology-driven modular housing manufacturing. The company is 70 per cent owned by Goldman Sachs, who have made a £75m capital investment to help TopHat expand and scale the business.

As per the Government’s housing white paper, modern methods of construction, and volumetric modular housing, are instrumental to increasing the delivery of homes and helping to solve the UK’s housing crisis. TopHat are at the forefront of modular housing in the UK and have recently announced they are to build a new factory in Corby.

The process TopHat uses to build houses is semi-automated and requires scale to be cost-effective. The process is less reliant on skilled labour which is expensive and in short supply in the UK. The company’s facility in Derby is capable of producing 800 homes a year, however the new factory in Corby is hoped to expand this considerably.

The message for the construction industry is interesting and is making other businesses question traditional forms of manufacturing. Automation is viewed by many as the solution to easing the pain of labour shortages and increasing wages. The glazing sector is lagging in this regard as many manufacturers have insufficient funds to invest in further automation. Automation is often a long-term investment strategy and firms only invest in machinery that is available at the time of investment. Machinery suppliers are busily addressing current market needs, and perhaps the sector needs to create a blueprint of what the future will look like. Can we realistically have fully automated window and door production lines? Will we ever be able to have robotic devices installing windows and facades?