Pocket Living has appointed Elements Europe to develop a modular solution for a 21 storey tower in Croydon, one of the tallest residential modular towers in the UK.
The development priced at £30 million, is set to be one of the UK’s tallest modular residential builds. Addiscombe Grove is a 100 percent affordable housing scheme delivered by London’s leading affordable housing developer, Pocket Living.
Elements Europe will manufacture, deliver and install 300 modules to the scheme which make up 153 new affordable homes, promoting Elements Europe to one of the major offsite housing suppliers, with recent projects totalling over 1250 modules across 500 homes.
Simon Underwood, Managing Director of Elements Europe, commented “We are pleased to be involved in this collaborative approach to delivering new homes in the UK. Pocket Living has embraced modular construction and are now a market leader in the delivery of this form of construction”.
The development is to be completed by spring 2020, and by using modular construction, Pocket Living estimate they have reduced the build programme by a third compared to using conventional methods.
The Pocket homes will provide a 20 percent discount off the local market rate to support local first-time buyers own their home. The homes stay affordable in perpetuity and they are always restricted to first-time buyers living locally who are eligible for affordable housing (as defined by the Mayor of London).
Lucian Smithers, Director at Pocket Living stated: “We aspire to lead the way in the housing sector using modular construction – delivering homes faster, reducing disruption to local communities and increasing the genuinely affordable housing provided. Elements Europe, with its expertise and vast experience in the modular sector, is the ideal partner to help us realise this ambition,” he added.
The site originally had planning permission to deliver just 12 percent affordable housing before Pocket Living took the site on with the promise to significantly upscale the affordable housing provision. Pocket Living and Optivo agreed on a deal in the first half of 2018 which sees affordable housing maximised.
The announcement came as Shadow Housing Minister and local Croydon Central MP Sarah Jones broke the ground on the affordable housing scheme near East Croydon station. The Shadow Housing Minister praised the collaborative approach and the “real commitment to affordable housing” through the use of modern methods of construction.