7th December 2020
We were delighted to win not one but two awards at the Constructing Excellence South West Awards 2020 on Friday.
Our innovative collaboration to demonstrate the effectiveness of using offsite manufacture to provide social housing won the Offsite Award and the Winner of Winners prize at the online awards ceremony.
We submitted our bid with our partners Magna Housing, the South West Procurement Alliance and Complex Asset Management Solutions (CAMS).
Our entry focused on making the business case for adopting modern methods of construction (MMC) via a strategic asset management approach, modelling comparative whole life costs and producing the modular units.
Magna Housing explored the business case for MMC as a tool for increasing the supply of new homes and developed a strategic Asset Management Plan.
A delivery partner was found by a collaborative process with the South West Procurement Alliance (part of procurement organisation LHC) and a formal tender was carried out to assess the ability and willingness of the potential supplier to collaborate.
LHC and Magna also commissioned CAMS to assess the business case for change from traditional construction to MMC. The results showed that MMC delivers consistency of quality and the best whole-life profile and allows for asset management and maintenance innovation in the future.
After a thorough selection process we were selected as the preferred provider, and we are now working with Magna to manufacture and install high-quality, precision-engineered, attractive, affordable and environmentally sustainable homes throughout Dorset and Somerset.
Steve Chivers, Managing Director of Rollalong, said: ‘Winning these two awards from Constructing Excellence South West is testament to the culture that exists within the partnership. Rollalong set out to innovate, and to achieve that common goal you must collaborate, drawing from the strengths of every alliance member – truly great collaborations push the boundaries of all partners.
“Aggregating demand through the engagement of new clients with our latest range of environmental upgrades and designs for 2021 will further strengthen the partnership, creating endless opportunities for superb collaboration and growth.”
Pictured below are Iain Steele, Rollalong MD Steve Chivers and Darren Moore celebrating Friday evening’s double award win!
14th August 2020
Two Dorset businesses have strengthened their relationship by agreeing a contract to manufacture 50 more sustainable modular homes for communities in the South West.
Rollalong, the largest permanent offsite manufacturer in the south of England, will manufacture the homes offsite at its factory in Wimborne for Dorchester-based Magna Housing before installing them on several sites across Dorset and Somerset.
The new contract marks the start of a decade in which Magna will invest £400 million into new and existing homes across Dorset and Somerset. Forty-five homes have already been manufactured and earmarked for sites across Dorset.
The Magna homes range by Rollalong are built off site in a factory-controlled setting and are therefore more cost-effective to maintain and quicker to construct, generate less waste and have a lower carbon footprint in use than traditional brick houses, making them a sustainable housing solution.
“This is tremendously exciting and we’re delighted to continue working with Magna Housing,” said Steve Chivers, Managing Director of Rollalong.
“Our ongoing collaboration will ensure that high-quality, precision-engineered homes continue to be manufactured in the local area by local people.”
Paul Read, Head of Development and Sales at Magna Housing, added: “This is great news for both our organisations, which have been working together very successfully for the past 18 months.
“Magna’s partnership with Rollalong and its continued commitment are securing jobs in the local area, generating social returns for the local economy and building a sustainable future in the South West.”
Rollalong has a factory capacity of 2,000 homes per annum and is well placed to support an intervention from central Government and play its part in solving the current housing crisis.
The new homes will be manufactured from the newly designed 2020/21 range and have been designed to fully comply with the Higher Fabric First approach in the Future Homes Standard.
Pictured below are (left to right) Paul Read from Magna Housing, Steve Chivers, MD of Rollalong, and Mark Farmer, the Government’s Champion for Modern Methods of Construction.