a conversation with MMC Ireland and Homes England
This blog is our summary and key takeaways from Session 4 from the New Homes in New Ways Summit, a conversation between Homes England And MMC Ireland. Watch the Summit on our YouTube channel.
As part of their national Housing for All strategy, the Irish government have published a Roadmap for increased adoption of Modern Methods of Construction in Public Housing. This roadmap seeks to encourage the most advanced and efficient construction methods in the delivery of new housing. In this conversation, Edward Jezeph, Senior Manager of Homes England interviewed Paul Tierney, CEO of MMC Ireland to explore the role of national leadership in the incubation of the MMC sector and broader transformation in housing delivery.
Who are MMC Ireland?
MMC Ireland are the representative body for MMC in Ireland, made up of around 80 manufacturers, contractors, consultants and others, and act as a ‘knowledge bridge’ between the industry and government.
Paul was clear that in this ‘fireside chat’ he would be speaking from his own experience of MMC and how the government have implemented their strategies, and not on behalf of the Irish Government. He highlighted that what Ireland has done well from his perspective is national leadership - producing an actionable plan to build more homes and rolling it out successfully. He credited this in part to civil servants that he suggests are innovative, agile, open and willing to learn, and a strong political will.
Housing for All – a New Housing Plan for Ireland
‘Housing for All’ was a plan put in place in September 2021 and is the government’s housing plan to 2030. The ambition is for every citizen of Ireland to have access to good quality home. Initially, the goal was to get up to 30,000 homes built annually, and that goal was met for three years. Last year the target was slightly higher at 34,000, but still delivered just over 30,000. For the next five years, the target is 300,000 homes, which is essentially doubling the output, and Paul noted that this is where MMC has a key part to play.
The roadmap for MMC delivery
As part of ‘Housing for All’, the government recognised that MMC has a major part to play in meeting the housing targets outlined in the plan. The governments ‘Roadmap for increased adoption of Modern Methods of Construction in Public Housing’ was published two years ago, with the goal to create a sustainable MMC industry in Ireland. Edward commended this plan, which is broken down into objectives, timelines and roles and responsibilities across multiple departments.
Paul explained that as a subset of the plan, an MMC leadership and integration group was created to bring government and industry together to collaboratively assess the status of MMC, what needs to be done and what the future looks like. This group then tasks the relevant departments with actions and reports on outputs.
A snapshot of some of the actions and outputs of the roadmap
The creation of an MMC demonstration park (including a factory). This will include a state-of-the-art national training facility in all aspects of MMC. An MMC student accommodation block is also planned, and the buildings’ performance monitored over time.
Accelerated delivery programme/pilot (1,500 MMC homes) to kickstart the roadmap. There are two initiatives that involve standardising housing types, one of which offers an incentive for Local Authorities to build MMC, which allows them to gain experience, while springboarding delivery at a meaningful scale.
The government has also commissioned KPMG to build an MMC data dashboard to make statistics on MMC housing delivery publicly available to consolidate learning.
The rapid build housing ‘Homes for Ukrainians’ programme
The Homes for Ukrainians program was another successful programme that demonstrated innovate ways to use MMC to accelerate the delivery of transitional housing. Paul explained that Ireland faced the need to house 100,000 refugees in a short space of time, and one of the initiatives to help achieve this was to house 2,000 people in demountable MMC homes as soon as possible. Because it was declared an emergency, much of the usual ‘red tape’ was waived, including a formal planning process, which demonstrates how quickly things can be done if there is political will.
Key to the success of this transitional housing programme was four MMC manufacturers coming together to develop a standard relocatable home typology that they could all build interchangeably. The government then offered land in its ownership that was considered financially unviable for other development and agreed to complete all remediation work on these sites. While there wasn’t a formal planning process, all criteria were met, and local communities were consulted and brought in to understand this emergency response. A pipeline was agreed for 12 – 15 months, with plans for subsequent phases. The programme was described as being a huge success.
Learning for the UK
This was a fascinating conversation, not least as the above plans and programmes demonstrate real-life examples that work, and therefore replicable in other contexts. Of note was the need for national leadership and buy-in from local authorities, planning authorities and other key stakeholders to create the pathways to fast-track the delivery of much needed new homes.