Legal & General launches modular housing factory near Leeds

Legal & General Capital (LGC) has announced the launch of its modular housing business, Legal & General Homes, with a factory near Leeds.

The company has signed a long-term lease with Logicor on a 550,000 sq ft warehouse in Sherburn-in-Elmet, 15 miles east of Leeds, which they claim will be the largest modular homes construction factory in the world.

Initially employing 400 to 500 local people, it expects to deliver its first houses from the factory in June.

Tom Ground, Chief Executive of Legal & General Homes, said: ‘Legal & General Homes aims to deliver a new solution to the problems we face in the UK, addressing the shortage of suitable, affordable and sustainable housing by manufacturing higher quality, energy efficient, lower cost housing.

‘Legal & General Homes will not have the typical defects associated with house building by using cross laminated timber and automated technology to remove shrinkage, cracking, wet trades, plaster jointing and nailing – reducing repair costs as the building settles.

‘Its homes will be precision engineered in order to make them energy efficient, great to live in, and better for the environment than traditional homes.’

Selby Council leader Mark Crane said the new factory was a ‘vote of confidence’ in the region.

Over the past couple of years, Yorkshire has become a hotbed for modular housing construction. In 2019, British modular housebuilder ilke Homes opened its modular housing factory in Knaresborough.

The factory has created more than 250 local jobs across ilke Homes’ manufacturing and supply chain, design and engineering teams, with 85% of roles classified as unskilled and taken by people from outside of the construction sector.