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Modular housing developer Ilke Homes and major housing association The Guinness Partnership have started construction work on a 220-home scheme on the Essex coast.
The development is part of the Yorkshire-based offsite specialist’s expansion into the South East and will see 221 homes, made up of 32 flats and 189 family houses, built on a 15-acre site in Southend-on-Sea.
The Fossetts Way scheme will be owned by 65,000-home Guinness, which owns a £10m stake in Ilke.
This is its second scheme with the modular company following a 57-home scheme in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.
The Southend project, which will be delivered with support from Homes England, will include around 50 zero-carbon homes that will generate their own source of energy, helping to reduce emissions produced by electricity and heating.
It comes as Ilke, in partnership with Octopus Energy and Gresham House, recently announced that it is rolling out homes on another Essex site that be the UK’s first to guarantee residents zero energy bills.
Ilke builds its properties at its factory in North Yorkshire, before assembling the properties on site. Earlier this year, the modular specialist announced its second partnership deal with housing association Orbit for 140 homes on a site in Sussex.
Private equity-backed Ilke is also working with a number of other registered providers, including Places for People, Stonewater, ReSI Homes, EMH Group and Jigsaw Homes.
Since its launch in 2016, the firm recorded losses of more than £100m as it dealt with significant start-up costs amid the fledgling offsite sector.
However in January, Ilke said it expects to achieve a “positive EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation] trajectory” in the current financial year and has an order book worth around £300m.
Matt Suggitt, development director – South East at Ilke, said: “We are incredibly pleased to be delivering yet another affordable and sustainable housing scheme in the South East, bringing our pipeline to over 1,000 homes across five sites in the region.
“We look forward to delivering this scheme for The Guinness Partnership, in order to provide a truly sustainable and well-designed community with much-needed, high-quality housing in Southend.”
Jon Milburn, group development director at Guinness, said: “Guinness is pleased to be working with Ilke Homes on this, the second scheme under our partnership, which will deliver much-needed affordable homes for local residents.”
Work is already underway on site, with completion expected in autumn 2024.
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