Stop Chasing Permissions. Start Manufacturing Homes
By Richard Hyams, Founder of astudio
This week’s Panorama programme, The Race to Build 1.5 Million Homes made one thing crystal clear: doing the same thing, slightly faster, will not deliver the homes Britain needs. If we want keys in doors -fast, we have to change the engine of delivery.
At astudio, we’ve spent years designing for Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). Not as a bolt-on. As the operating system. When you plan for manufacture, you unlock three things the system is starving for: pace, quality, and predictability.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
● Pace: Off-site manufacture runs in parallel with site prep and infrastructure. That’s how you cut programme time by 30–50% and get earlier move-ins that reduce temporary accommodation pressure.
● Quality: Factory QA isn’t a slogan, it’s a measurable reduction in defects at handover (60–80% fewer) and quieter, cleaner sites that residents and councillors can support.
● Predictability: Platformised components and design-for-repeatability hold costs steady (target ±3–5% vs GMP), and they make whole-life carbon and running costs genuinely controllable.
But MMC alone isn’t enough. You need a production system that runs from policy to handover:
Plan for manufacture. We bake MMC rules into design codes and Local Plan text so schemes are committee-ready and call-in resilient.
Phase like a factory. Estate renewal becomes a series of reliable batches, decant → demolish/retrofit → install → commission → re-occupy, with off-site production smoothing the curve.
Define “grey-belt” locally. Clear, objective criteria (previous use/quality, transport reach, utilities, biodiversity uplift) turn political friction into defensible decisions.
Build the workforce as you build the homes. Our programmes embed an MMC Academy, apprenticeships, supplier certification, and local SME onboarding, so councils see jobs and careers, not just frames.
Unite all of our great factories across the UK to build at scale to hit the target
Net-zero by design. Fabric-first envelopes, airtightness, and platformised low-carbon MEP target >70% reductions in operational energy (vs 2013-equivalent baselines), with transparent embodied-carbon reporting.
This is the backbone of our MMC Housing Accelerator, a plan-ready, factory-first pathway that puts a committee-ready pack on your desk in 90 days and gets to start on site inside 12 months (subject to approvals). It’s designed for council leaders, chief executives, MPs, registered providers, and financiers who want delivery they can defend in public and stand behind in private.
Why astudio?
Because independent endorsement matters when politics is hot and decisions are scrutinised.
● Award-winning practice with recognition from RIBA, RICS, Architects’ Journal, BCO, London Planning Awards, Civic Trust, RTPI and RESI Awards for design quality, sustainability, and complex estate renewal.
● Proven estate-renewal leadership: resident-first decant and return pathways that build legitimacy, not backlash.
● amodular™ pedigree: a design-led MMC platform, created to deliver pace and quality without value-engineering the idea to death.
● End-to-end capability: architecture, planning consultancy, sustainability, interiors, and visualisation under one roof, so what we design is exactly what the factory makes.
Assurance built-in: balanced planning cases, quantified social value, embodied/operational carbon tracking, and post-occupancy analytics that prove outcomes.
Let’s co-create a simple first move for leaders who want results
The challenge - Name two pilot sites:
• One estate renewal (council-nominated)
• One “grey-belt” or previously-developed site
We’ll stand up a joint steering group, co-locate a small team for the first 90 days, and deliver your 60-day committee-ready pack, design codes, planning case, phasing/decant, factory-first delivery playbook, and a KPI dashboard we’ll publish as we go.
Residents don’t live in permissions, they live in homes. Let’s manufacture them.
