UK’s Vistry Announces Reopening of Timber Frame Factory

On Monday, Vistry, a top UK housebuilder and leader in partnership housing, announced it has reopened what is described as a “mega facility” in the East Midlands region, according to a report by Inside Housing (7-10-23). Vistry took ownership of the facility as part of its combination with Countryside Partnership.

The newly branded Vistry Works East Midlands factory is a 356,000 sq-ft facility with the capacity to deliver more than 6,000 homes per year. In its first full year of operation, the East Midland’s factory is expected to deliver 2,000 homes, with approximately 40% destined for new sites. When combined with Vistry’s two existing factories located in Warrington and Leicester, the company will have the capacity to deliver a total of 5,000 homes in 2024.

In addition to supplying new homes with open panel frames for the group’s mixed-tenure Countryside Partnerships business and housebuilding business, the new Modern Method of Construction (MMC) facility will facilitate the delivery of homes to meet the Future Homes Standard, which comes into operation in 2025.

Inside Housing says the news comes at a time of heightened focus on MMC, with two of the UK’s biggest players— L&G Modular Homes and IIke Homes—both announcing that they are pulling out of the volumetric modular space.