Innovative timber frame consortium Amphion has taken on two new members, Home Group and Anglia Housing Group, boosting its membership to 23.
The companies, which are both responsible for social housing across the country, want to tap into the consortium’s access to high-tech timber frame technology and particularly its strengths in prefabrication. About 25% of the finished product is produced off-site by Amphion’s sole developer Beazer, but there are plans to increase this to 70% over the coming years.
Development of bathroom and kitchen pods along with pre-wire and installed services is already in progress.
The new members of the consortium will be among the first to benefit from Beazer’s storey-height wall panels, floor cassettes and roofing structures known collectively at Tee-U-Tec. These large panel components are produced at the Beazer Group’s new manufacturing plant Torwood 2 in Ipswich.
Anglia Housing Group’s Paul Munday said: ‘This will bring us the most innovative construction technology. The benefits can be passed on to our tenants, not just in terms of costs, but most importantly in terms of providing better choice and improved living conditions much quicker than with the traditional method of social housing provision.’
Home Group’s Tim Holden said: ‘Membership will give us unparalleled access to developments in terms of production and design.’
Amphion – an acronym for advanced manufacturing and procurement for housing innovation – has pledged to build over 2,000 social housing units over the next four years.
