PRESCOTT'S £60,000 HOUSE CHALLENGE NEXT MILESTONE REACHED

6 Jun 2005 01:45 PM

33 invited to take part in next stage and new sites announced in the Design for Manufacture Competition

The challenge for house builders to design and construct high quality homes for around £60,000 took another step forward today when the Deputy Prime Minister announced that 33 organisations would be invited to participate in the next stage of the Design for Manufacture Competition.

The 33 - a mixture of consortia, partnerships and individual companies from the UK and overseas - will now be invited to submit firm proposals in the second stage of the competition. Successful bidders have until July to submit their Stage Two proposals.

The Design for Manufacture Competition is being run by English Partnerships, the Government's regeneration agency, on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Announcing the successful firms at the BRE OFFSITE 2005 conference this afternoon, the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott said:

"I am encouraged by the response from the construction industry to step up and take on my challenge to produce the £60,000 home. The level of interest in this competition has been staggering. We received over 50 expressions of interest in the first stage, involving more than 100 companies. Originally it was predicted that between 15-25 firms would move to this next stage, but since the quality of the entries was so high that number has easily been surpassed.

"My Design for Manufacture Competition is challenging house builders to think creatively and innovatively in order to provide homes that are well designed and affordable at the same time. At a time when construction costs are rising and we need to build more for our money, I want to help more people get onto the housing ladder while still driving up standards in design, construction methods and creating truly sustainable communities."

The Deputy Prime Minister also announced three further sites that will be used for the Competition - School Road, Hastings; Horn's Cross, Stone; and Rowan High School, Merton. In total 10 sites have now been chosen to be used by the eventual competition winners. The successful bidders will be chosen early next year and it is expected that work will begin on the first sites in Spring 2006.

In addition, invitations are being sent out today to those people the Government would like to be on the Design for Manufacture judging panel. Potential panelists are from a range of backgrounds including design specialists, local authorities, housing corporations and environmental experts. The panel will be responsible for selecting the final shortlist and making recommendations to the Deputy Prime Minister.

The Deputy Prime Minister added:

"Innovation and imagination is the name of the game. This is a stretching challenge but one that is necessary if we are to tackle the problems we face in terms of housing shortage and buyers being priced out of the market. Twinned with that I want to stimulate fresh thinking in the industry with the UK becoming world leaders in terms of construction methods and design excellence.

"I am looking forward to seeing the developed proposals in Stage Two - let's see what can be achieved and really make this Competition a success - I wish all 33 organisations the best of luck in this next stage."

Following his keynote speech at the BRE OFFSITE conference, the largest exhibition of off-site and Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) ever seen in the UK, the Deputy Prime Minister opened the new Innovation Park, sponsored by ODPM and the DTI, which is located at BRE. The Park, that will accommodate seven demonstration houses in total, will be used over the next two years for training purposes - educating builders, contractors and manufacturers about Modern Methods of Construction, renewable systems, innovative IT systems and brand new concepts for the construction industry.

Notes to Editors

1. A full list of successful bidders is below.

Consortium Own Members of Lead Member Name Submission/ Consortium
Consortium

Hightown Consortium GDG Management Ltd Hightown Praetorian Consortium / AT4 Architects HA
Ltd / High Town
Praetorian &
Churches Housing
Association Limited

William Verry Partnership Weberhaus GMBH & Co William Verry (T/A (Europe) Ltd / William Verry Verry Construction) (T/A Verry
Construction)

Countryside Consortium Metropolitan Countryside Properties Housing Trust / Properties Plc Plc Acton HA /
Countryside
Properties Plc /
Presentation / Hyde
HA Ltd

Gentect Homes Consortium GHM / Genesis Genesis Housing Ltd Housing Group / Group
BPTW / Allen Build
Ltd / Durkan / Hill
Partnership /
McCann Homes

- Consortium Persimmon Plc / Persimmon Plc Fusion Building
Systems / PRP

- Own Redrow Plc

Keepmoat Plc Consortium Keepmoat Plc / Keepmoat Plc Fulcrum Consulting
/ Peter Brett
Associates / PRP
Architects Ltd

Bellway Homes Consortium Bellway Homes Ltd / Bellway Homes / The The Guinness Trust Limited
Guinness
Trust

- Own Linden Homes
Developments Ltd

The Places Partnership Mansell Partnership The Places for for People Housing / The People Group Group Limited Places for People
Group

- Consortium Accent Group Ltd / Accent Group Ltd Bridges Pound /
Goddard Wybor /
Rider Hunt
Management Services
Ltd / Carillion Plc

- Consortium Barratt Barratt
Developments Plc / Developments Plc
Advance Housing Ltd
/ HTA Architects
Ltd

- Own Leadbitter
Construction

- Own Scandinavian Log
Cabins Direct Ltd

Mace Ltd Partnership Mace Ltd / Mace Ltd Cartwright Pickard

Housekit /JTD Consortium JTD Timber Frame Richard Pain / Rok Ltd / The Rok Build
Ltd / Richard Pain

- Own Taylor Woodrow
Developments Ltd

- Own Geoffrey Osborne
Ltd

Kelsey / Consortium Kelsey Housing Kelsey HA Alloutte Association /
Partnership Alloutte Homes /
CHMC International
/ Martin Associates

- Own Westbury Homes
(Holding) Ltd

- Own Chelbury Homes Ltd

- Own Powerwall Systems
Ltd

- Own Lovell Partnerships
Ltd

- Consortium Gleeson Gleeson
Regeneration Ltd / Regeneration Ltd
B3 Burgess Ltd /
Faber Maunsell

George Wimpey Partnership George Wimpey UK / George Wimpey UK UK & Richard Richard Rogers PTN
Rogers PTN

The Prime Consortium John Laing John Laing Partnership Partnership / Partnership Pinewood Structures
Ltd / PCKO
Architects

The Atlas Consortium Jarvis Group Ltd / Midsummer HA Ltd Project Midsummer HA Ltd

Consortium Hyland Edgar Driver Bellwinch Homes Ltd
/ Faber Maunsell /
TP Bennett
Architects /
Rollalong Ltd /
Bellwinch Homes Ltd
/ Cluttons

Signature Consortium Kier Regional Kier Regional Homes
Partnership

UK 60K Consortium ASRA / Bedfordshire Bedfordshire Pilgrim HA / Pilgrim HA
Avebury
International Plc /
William Sutton HA

Team 5 Consortium Hester Architects / Catalyst Housing Churchill HUI /
Widacre Homes Ltd /
Willmott Dixon
Housing Ltd / Home
Group Ltd /
Catalyst Housing

Sixty K Consortium Davis Langdon / OVE Crest Nicholson Plc Arup / Kingspan Off
Site Ltd / Crest
Nicholson Plc /
Sheppard Robson

Northern Edge Consortium M&M Plasline Ltd / Three Rivers Van Elle Ltd / Housing Group
Yorkshire Community
Housing / MacKellar
Architects / Urban
Salon / South
Yorkshire HA /
Three Rivers
Housing Group /
Tees Valley Housing
Group

2. The 10 sites chosen for development in the Competition are listed below.

* Allerton Bywater Millennium Community, Leeds
* Oxley Park, Milton Keynes
* Oxford Road, Aylesbury Vale
* Upton, Northampton
* London Road, Newport Pagnell
* Kingsclere Road, Basingstoke
* Leybourne Grange, Maidstone
* School Road, Hastings - announced today
* Horns Cross, Stone - announced today
* Rowan High School, Merton - announced today

3. The Deputy Prime Minister first announced the competition to construct a home for around £60,000 on 26 September 2004 and the Competition was officially launched in April 2005.

4. About 30% of the approximately 1000 housing units built within the Competition will be built to a target cost of £60k (the remainder will be larger and smaller units that should be built at an equivalent cost-efficiency).

5. In total 53 organisations submitted the Pre-Qualifying Questionnaire by the deadline, which was 13 May 2005. 33 firms will now be invited to submit detailed proposals in Stage Two. 20 were not successful for a variety of reasons - they either failed to complete the PQQ fully, or failed the financial vet or did not specify an adequate explanation of key delivery arrangements.

6. The Stage Two brief, which organisations will need to complete and return in July, is now available on the English Partnerships web site.

7. Also today the Deputy Prime Minister has published the technical annex to the ODPM's consultation 'HomeBuy - expanding the opportunity to own' which shows that people on low incomes will have the opportunity to buy their own homes. HomeBuy and Design for Manufacture are just two of the ODPM's housing initiatives that demonstrate the Government's commitment to widening access to the housing market and encouraging a step change in the construction industry.

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News Releases: www.odpm.gov.uk
Also via: www.statistics.gov.uk