The panellists involved in the talk were Deborah Heenan, CEO at Populo Living, Anna Sinnott, head of consultancy at Be First, Kate Webb, head of housing strategy at the Greater London Authority (GLA), Julia Krause, assistant director for the South East at Homes England, while the discussion was moderated by Robbie Erbmann, assistant director for housing at Haringey Council.

When panellists discussed the effectiveness of MMC in creating housing stock, some showed enthusiasm but noted its shortfalls.

Deborah noted that the regulation and the multiple inputs from people such as case officers, politicians and others involved in the production of MMC homes across multiple jurisdictions can create issues when it comes to their delivery.

“You have the factories producing homes, and they can't get scale because the regulatory system, with the best intentions of all the people in that regulatory system, can't give them product certainty,” said Deborah.

“So, unless and until we sort that out, MMC is doomed to failure.”

However, making the analogy of car production, Deborah noted that there may be a way forward by clearing out the basics at unit levels.

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She said, “your house can have the equivalent of go faster stripes or leather interior, as long as what's under the bonnet is the same.”

“That allows the MMC to be possible and massively brings down production costs.”

Also interested in the utilisation of the building method in adding to housing stock was Kate Webb, and despite her support for the method, she noted its limitations in London specifically.

“I think it's probably a fair reflection that MMC has been difficult to bring forward in London,” said Kate.

She went on describe the long discussions regarding the pattern book, as well as talks in City Hall about bringing forward joint pipeline demands, and an MMC factory idea (which was eventually scrapped, she continued).

Kate described that London in itself still has its own unique challenges regarding its own specifications and constraints.

“I've certainly had some quite frustrating conversations with frustrated people who have started out very gung ho and then realised that they just haven't been able to make schemes work on London.”

“I think there's lots of places from a Homes England point of view where it's worked very, very successfully, but it is just much easier when you have large motorway access to big green fields.”