Retirement community developer McCarthy Stone is to build 40 new sites in full using modern methods of construction (MMC) that reduce environmental footprint and build time.
The MMC solution will be provided in partnership with Leeds-based Sigmat using its eco-friendly light gauge steel framing (LGSF) off-site structural solution.
McCarthy Stone said MMC will help McCarthy Stone fast-track the delivery of even more housing for older people.
The business is one of the first retirement community developers to begin the delivery of housing built off-site, and the only one to be delivering it nationally at scale.
McCarthy Stone is aiming for 50 per cent of its future developments to be built in this way.
Five new sites will start in 2022 using MMC, rising to ten in 2023 and then 25 in 2024.
From this point, the company aims for 50 per cent of its sites to be built wholly using MMC, up from the company’s previous aim of 25 per cent.
The sites to start in 2022 include developments in Broadstairs, Stratford-on-Avon, Warminster and West Bridgford.
“MMC is game-changing. Sigmat’s unique solution will further increase our build quality, control our costs, and most importantly, build more energy-efficient and greener communities,” said McCarthy Stone chief executive John Tonkiss.
McCarthy Stone’s MMC plan supports the government’s Heat and Building Strategy to reduce carbon emissions, with each new retirement community built using MMC seeing an improvement in building performance, fuel usage and thermal transmittance, in comparison to those built using traditional methods.
The announcement follows the successful opening of McCarthy Stone’s first MMC retirement community in Hexham, Northumberland (pictured) which was opened by then construction minister Ann-Marie Trevelyan MP last year.
It reduced typical build times by 15 per cent, and future schemes are expected to reduce by 25 per cent.
