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The Company Claims That: Utilising The Advance Housing Approach Can Achieve ...

The company claims that:
Utilising the Advance Housing approach can achieve the targets set by Government in attaining the Egan principles: the use of modern methods of construction, high quality and value for money. (http://advancehousing.net/about.php)
The plant in Daventry will eventually be able to produce ten properties a day. The chairman, Harold Walker is quoted as saying:
From the outset, our objective was to build weather-tight shells with high levels of energy efficiency, the minimum number of defects, less waste, more safety, and speed in the construction process - a high- quality, high-performance product. (Norwood 2006, 84).

Buildoffsite
An industry-focused forum as part of the ‘Prospa' programme into bettering and focusing the construction industry. It is led by Richard Ogden (former President for Construction at McDonalds), and a board of senior industry figures. This initiative is supported by Terrapin amongst others, and intends to be the focal point of the industry and its clients for off-site manufacturing. (http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file11434.pdf)

Government Housing Targets
The Barker Review
In 2004, Kate Barker, an associate of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, was commissioned by Gordon Brown to review Britain's housing supply. She put to the government that without doubling the number of government-funded affordable homes then homelessness and social division would occur on a widening scale. (Weaver 2004). To arrive at this conclusion the review recognised that Britain has experienced an increasing trend in house prices - explicitly 2.4% a year for 30 years. (http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1503525). For first time buyers and for those on low incomes the inflated prices are not affordable. Barker commented that ‘the volatility of the housing market has exacerbated problems of macroeconomic instability and has had an adverse effect on economic growth.' (Barker 2004, 11). A summary of the main points raised in the review are as follows:
In order to achieve a trend in house prices of 1.8 per cent an additional 70,000 houses each year in England might be required.
To bring the real price trend of the UK in line with the EU average of 1.1 per cent an extra 120,000 houses each year might be required.
It is imperative for the government to increase financial incentives for local authorities to build more social housing (Ibid).

The Barker Review's final report provided some recommendations for reform within housing policy, with a focus on affordability and a relaxation or adaptation of planning law. Amongst these suggestions were:
Introduction of a Planning-gain Supplement to capture some of the development gains that landowners benefit from, to ensure that local communities share in the value of development.


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