Prefabricated properties were given a bad name after the Second World War because building standards slipped. KERRY ANN EUSTICE tell us about a company which is aiming to raise the reputation of prefab

The Weston Group has unveiled details of what it calls a radical and innovative construction programme.

Project Genesis is a multi-million pound programme which Weston claims moves away from traditional housebuilding methods by primarily manufacturing its new generation of homes in factories.

Weston Homes says it has opted for these new construction methods because of a number of benefits, including faster construction times, superior quality finishes and fittings, fewer housing defects and reductions in energy use and waste.

The Genesis Project is being rolled out across the company's new residential and commercial developments a portfolio which includes 2,000 homes in either production or planning.

The project has been trialled at Weston Homes' flagship development, 41 Millharbour in Docklands, but designs for all sites will now be created in-house, using computer-aided designs with the components of the homes designed so they are ideal for factory manufacture.

The parts, including balconies, ready-made walls with the necessary wiring or plumbing and floor and roof parts, will be made in factories and assembled on-site.

These methods of construction have been estimated to cost an extra £1,000 more per home but the time taken to construct the components of a ready-made home is drastically less than conventional construction ultimately meaning the company will be making huge savings.

Weston says a typical 12-unit apartment which takes around 12 weeks from shell to completion using traditional building methods will only take nine weeks under Project Genesis with Weston aiming to reduce this time further to just six weeks and requiring 20 per cent less manpower.

To date, the company has reported a 40-per-cent decline in recorded snagging faults, such as ill-fitting fixtures.

Weston says homes built using these modern construction methods require less energy to heat because of increased levels of insulation fitted in the walls and roof. It has also recorded reduced levels of waste.

Factory-manufactured housing is not a new concept. Both world wars necessitated a fast turnover of new builds and around one million pre-fabricated homes were built to accommodate this need. But the quality of these homes was badly controlled, leading to a negative public attitude towards prefabs.

However, this is changing. Factory production, technology and building methods have advanced dramatically over the past 15 years and factory- manufactured properties are becoming an increasingly popular choice and not just in the UK. In Japan, Germany and Sweden, for example, up to 40 per cent of new housing uses pre-manufactured construction methods.

And prefabricated homes are set to become instrumental in the Government's bid to increase the housing supply. Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is a new term intended to reflect the improvements the prefabricated housing sector has made in order for these methods to become credible again.

The Housing Corporation, now requires a quarter of the new homes it funds to be built using MMC.

There are currently more than 30 housebuilding factories in the UK which have a capacity to produce more than 30,000 MMC homes per year around 17 per cent of new UK housing.