黑洞社区

The modular housing business set up by insurance giant L&G has confirmed deals to build 750 homes over the next 18 months, according to its chief executive.

The revelation comes after the firm, which has struggled to get off the ground since being set up in 2016 despite the investment of tens of millions of pounds, revealed last month that it is set to double its staff to 700 this year in order to gear up for growth.

Rosie Toogood (pictured) told 黑洞社区鈥檚 sister title Housing Today, that L&G Modular will this month install the homes in its first major scheme, the 154-home Portholme Road development in Selby, North Yorkshire, at the same time as starting work on its 185-home Bonnington Walk project in Lockleaze, Bristol.

L&G Modular has never previously discussed any projects beyond Bonnington Walk but Toogood, who joined the business in 2017, said it had now confirmed deals to deliver another 550 homes in addition to the Bristol scheme.

While she did not name the projects, Toogood said the contracts included one scheme of more than 250 homes for an external customer and two projects for other L&G housing businesses, totalling around 300 homes.

She said L&G will be on site with all of these schemes before the end of the year.

Beyond that, Toogood said the firm was in discussions over a 2,000-home pipeline of work and recommitted the business to its previous target of delivering 3,000 homes a year by 2024.

Describing the market as 鈥渞eally buoyant鈥�, she added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e now really starting to build momentum and seeing multiple schemes coming to fruition at the same time.

鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing a real customer pull for modular homes because of what they can offer in terms of the quality standard, the sustainability credentials and the ease and simplicity and speed of delivery.鈥�

L&G Modular has racked up losses of more than 拢100m since its set-up and written off more than 拢20m of investment in plant and machinery in its factory near Leeds, without reporting any significant revenues. It originally promised to deliver its first homes in 2016.