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L&G ditches cross-laminated timber for modular homes amid combustibles ban
Insurer Legal & General (L&G) is to move away from using timber as a structural material for its modular apartments, allowing it to circumvent the government’s ban on combustible materials.
Since establishing its modular factory in Leeds in 2016, the company has spent a large amount of time honing its products through prototypes and has invested around £90m in the project.
It had originally planned to build its homes using cross-laminated timber (CLT) technology, but is yet to deliver as many homes as it had first intended.
The company confirmed to Inside Housing that it is now working on an alternative modular product based on a hybrid of concrete and steel frame.
By using these materials rather than timber, L&G can build taller structures without falling foul of recent bans on combustible materials on high-rise buildings, which came into force following the Grenfell Tower disaster.
CLT is combustible and is therefore now banned for use in the external walls of buildings six storeys or higher. L&G declined to confirm that this was the reason for the change.
But a spokesperson for L&G Modular Homes said the company would continue to use CLT for its whole house products.
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“As we design each product, we evaluate the various material systems available and choose the system that performs best for the customer requirements, design type and regulatory requirements,” the spokesperson said.
“We have chosen CLT for our two and three-bedroom homes and are very happy with its performance. We have chosen a combination of concrete and steel for apartments as we believe this is the most effective way to meet the requirements for this product.”
Despite promising that it would have a large pipeline with housing associations and local authorities by the start of 2017, it took L&G a number of months to establish a pipeline for the factory.
The firm delivered its first set of modular homes to housing association Silva Homes in December last year, constructing eight new homes at a development in Berkshire.
The latest figures for L&G Modular Homes showed it suffered a loss of more than £20m last year, although that was less than the £46.15m loss reported in 2017. L&G invested £23.2m into the division during the year.
