Berkeley Modular's proposed factory will have the potential to deliver more than 1,000 homes a year and create over 240 permanent jobs.
Construction of the factory will begin in 2018 on a riverside location in the heart of an area enjoying significant redevelopment. It will consist of a single 150,000sqft manufacturing facility and a 15,500sqft office building. The first homes are expected to leave the factory towards the end of 2019.
The announcement comes as the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, starts to release £1.7bn of public funding to councils and housing associations in a bid to accelerate affordable housing delivery across the capital. Many housing companies are already looking at the capabilities of off-site construction to improve build-out rates and meet their housebuilding targets.
The London Housing Strategy, published on 6 September 2017, also champions precision manufacturing with proposals to make funding available for affordable homes built through precision manufacturing; negotiating a share of the Accelerated Construction Fund to be used to encourage a shift to precision manufacturing; and making this sector a key priority of the new Construction Academy.
Berkeley's decision builds on the success of its Urban House, a modular home launched by the company in 2016 at Kidbrooke Village in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.