The modular construction sector may be going through turbulent times, but our business is going from strength to strength, writes Rollalong MD Steve Chivers.
We are the largest permanent offsite construction company in the south of England and we’ve built our reputation in the defence, education and healthcare sectors.
We’re now also winning significant residential contracts to provide modular homes for local authorities and housing associations.
In fact, we’re bucking the trend of some recent high-profile failures in the modular offsite construction sector.
Thanks to our many years of experience, our diverse product range and our long-standing partnerships, Rollalong is not facing the same challenges that others are experiencing in the industry.
We have a strong pipeline of work, such as the homes recently ordered by partners Magna Housing and Wilshire Council. With these houses now being produced in the factory, our business is continuing as normal.
Founded in 1932, Rollalong has been in business for over 90 years and specialises in the design, manufacture and installation of permanent offsite buildings. We currently have 1,000 homes on our order books and five proof-of-concept sites complete.
Unlike other offsite manufacturers, Rollalong does not operate solely in the residential sector – we also have a strong pipeline of work in defence, education and healthcare.
Thanks to our location and long history we also benefit from a robust supply chain, and through our current business model we procure factory materials locally wherever possible.
The residential sector is increasingly important to us, and we have demonstrated the value of collaboration through our partnership with Magna Housing, Wiltshire Council and the South West Procurement Alliance.
Working together, we can deliver the volumes that we require using a market-tested, BOPAS and NHBC Accepts accredited portfolio of standard house types in any step and stagger configuration and rollout through a regional delivery model.
These are exciting times as we roll out the delivery of almost 1,000 new net zero carbon ready and net zero carbon living modular homes across Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset, using offsite manufactured, precision-engineered techniques to modernise and speed up the whole process.
An innovative partnership has agreed to create more than 100 modern, energy-efficient new homes for people in the South West.
Housing association Magna, Wiltshire Council and Dorset-based manufacturer Rollalong joined forces last year to tackle the housing crisis using modular building methods. They have pledged to build nearly 1,000 new affordable homes by 2026.
Magna and Wiltshire have now taken another step towards that goal by placing orders for Rollalong to manufacture 109 new, modular homes for five sites across two counties.
The partners have used their joint purchasing power to get better value under a money-saving framework created by the South West Procurement Alliance (SWPA). 
Magna will make 26 of the homes available for affordable rent or shared ownership in Dorset. They will include 14 at Webber’s Piece in Maiden Newton and 12 at the site of the former Royal Manor Arts College on Portland, adding to the 29 Rollalong has already manufactured for the 41-home development.
In Wiltshire, the council will create a further 83 new affordable homes across three sites within the county.
Rollalong uses precision engineering techniques to manufacture high-quality modern homes as modules in its factory near Wimborne Minster. These are then transported, fully fitted with kitchens, bathrooms and electrics, to sites where they will become attractive, energy efficient homes.
Modular manufacturing has potential to deliver much-needed new homes faster and more sustainably than traditional brick housebuilding. Overall, the process generates less waste and has a lower carbon footprint. It also creates less disruption to local people, with fewer deliveries to site over a shorter time.
The partners’ latest range of modular house types are built to be ‘net zero in use’, in line with the Government’s proposed Future Homes Standard, which will require new homes built from 2025 to produce 75-80% less carbon. The all-electric homes will be heated by air-source heat pumps, with a thermally efficient fabric retaining warmth and helping residents keep their energy bills lower.
The homes can be tailored to the local, often rural setting, with a range of house types and finishes influenced by customer feedback. The partners also have the only modular approach in the UK accredited by the National Housing-Building Council (NHBC) able to ‘step and stagger’ terraces of houses so that they have more visual variety.
Magna and Rollalong have already completed 32 new modular homes across sites in Sherborne, Chickerell and Dorchester.
Tony and his husband Kevin recently moved in to their new, rented, modular home at Eddison Avenue in Dorchester. Tony said:
“We’re so happy in our home. We’re warmer than we have been in years. We absolutely love it and cannot believe how lucky we are.”
Paul Read, Magna’s Director of Sustainability and Investment, said:
“These are among the most important new homes Magna has delivered, with our ambition to build the right homes of the right quality in the right places. By collaborating with others and modernising how we build, we are creating homes for local people that will help address the cost of living, energy challenges and contribute towards the UK’s net zero targets.
“Thanks to Government retrofit funding, we also have the opportunity to decarbonise our existing homes, including those neighbouring the new, modular houses at Webbers Piece. These older homes will benefit from external wall insulation, new windows and doors, and air-source heat pumps. The timing means we can look at creating a real sense of place in this rural community.”
Steve Chivers, Managing Director of Rollalong, said:
“We are delighted to have been awarded this latest contract by Magna Housing and Wiltshire Council to design and build a further 109 modular homes under the partnership.
“The aim of our innovative partnership is to deliver almost 1,000 high-quality, affordable, Net Zero-ready future homes in the South West using a local workforce and local suppliers.
“Manufacturing homes offsite in modules is the future for our industry, and our unique partnership provides the volumes we need to make these modern methods of construction work.
“These are the homes of the future designed for living today, and we’re pleased to have the opportunity to promote the benefits of modular housing as a response to a nationwide housing crisis.”
Cllr Phil Alford, Cabinet Member for Housing at Wiltshire Council, said:
“We’re delighted to continue our positive and hugely productive partnership with Magna and Rollalong.
“The houses are built in the most innovative and efficient way, resulting in quality affordable homes for Wiltshire residents, which is a key mission of our business plan.
“Our aim as a council to build 1,000 affordable over a ten-year period is really gathering momentum and we’re committed to successfully achieving that for our communities.”
Mary Bennell, Director of SWPA, said:
“We have worked closely with Magna and Wiltshire Council to provide the innovative procurement solutions required to meet their housing aspirations.
“We were especially proud to support the project by developing a detailed easy to use methodology for assessing the social value outputs at an individual project level for both clients.”
Rollalong has become the only specialist offsite manufacturer of modular homes to join the Homes England Delivery Partner Dynamic Purchasing System, which makes it easier for housebuilders of any size to access Homes England land.
Homes England is the Government’s housing delivery agency. The framework is one of the largest vendors of residential land in the UK and Homes England’s largest procurement exercise to date, valued at £20 billion.
The DPS is a primary route for Homes England’s land disposal which offers housing providers like Rollalong the exclusive opportunity to bid for Homes England sites.
Other public bodies may also use the DPS to procure developers, broadening housebuilders’ exposure to potential projects.
Steve Chivers, Managing Director of Rollalong, said: “After a rigorous application process, we are delighted to be appointed to this framework alongside major housebuilders.
“This demonstrates Homes England’s confidence in our ability to deliver new quality homes at scale.
“Our land-led development arm Newship Developments, which is part of our parent company the Newship Group, has extensive experience in land and property acquisition which complements and supports our work in the residential sector.”
7th July 2021
We’re delighted to announce that we’ve been accepted onto the new version of the modular buildings framework agreement opened by NHS Shared Business Services.
The framework runs initially from July 2021 until July 2023 and is expected to be worth £1.6bn to the selected suppliers over two years.
It covers the purchase, hire or lease of bespoke modular buildings, modular healthcare units and modular education units and can be accessed by all public sector organisations in the UK including the education and residential sectors as well as healthcare.
Businesses appointed to the framework are required to deliver full turnkey solutions, from planning applications and design to site works and landscaping.
Customers have the ability to directly call off from this framework or run a mini-competition, thereby allowing more flexibility.
Our Managing Director Steve Chivers said: “This is brilliant news for everyone at Rollalong. We’re delighted to have been appointed to the framework and we look forward to using our 90 years of experience to deliver high-quality, flexible modular buildings for the public sector.
“One of the advantages of offsite construction is the speed at which projects can be completed, and this framework will additionally speed up the process for public-sector clients.”
1st June 2021
Some great news to start the week! Our modular homes have been approved by NHBC Accepts, the industry standard accreditation scheme for the residential housing sector provided by the National House Building Council.
That means we’re now one of only two modular manufacturers in the UK using light gauge steel which have achieved this accreditation.
NHBC Accepts is NHBC’s comprehensive review service for innovative products and systems. It is the fast-track route for acceptance for building products and systems used in homes covered by all NHBC warranty products.
The accreditation allows us to register the modular homes we manufacture offsite at our factory in Dorset with NHBC for a full 10-year warranty.
“This is a tremendous achievement by our team and I’m so proud and delighted by the news,” said Managing Director Steve Chivers.
“System approval by NHBC Accepts gives us an advantage and will help to cement our position as a significant player in the residential housing market.”
The Rollalong HDA System is an offsite, volumetric method of building houses based on light gauge steel structures.
Floor, ceiling and wall elements are assembled together in the factory to create modules which are fully fitted out with fire linings, thermal insulation, breather membrane, windows and doors.
The modules are then installed on site on a prepared foundation, the roof is added and connections are made to the previously installed drainage and utilities services in the ground.
29th March 2021
We’re pleased to announce that we’ve completed our latest turnkey residential project, delivering 13 new modular council-owned homes in Barking, East London.
We manufactured the new homes at our factory in Dorset and installed them on Sugden Way in Barking as part of a development managed by Be First for Barking and Dagenham Council. The development is our latest successful housing project, but we also specialise in manufacturing buildings offsite for the defence, health and education sectors.
“We’re extremely pleased to have completed this residential scheme which now provides a range of high-quality, affordable homes for people in Barking and Dagenham,” said Construction Manager Clive Harris (pictured right on site with Elliot Fenwick, Senior Site Manager).
“Like many parts of the UK, Barking and Dagenham suffers from a shortage of housing, and our modular approach offers local authorities a chance to address this shortfall in around half the time of a traditional build.
“Modular offsite construction also significantly reduces disruption to the neighbouring properties during the project.”
Be First Construction Manager Sam Parry said: “We’re really pleased to say that in spite of the coronavirus we’ve delivered 13 new affordable homes for the council in a fraction of the time a traditional build would take.
“More importantly, the standard is excellent, which means top-quality new homes for local people that will stand the test of time.”
The new homes include a one-bedroom flat, eight two-bedroom flats and four three-bedroom flats.
The modules were transported to the site and lifted into position and connected together over a five-day period, after which the internal and external finishing process commenced.
Internal finishing times on site were greatly reduced as the modules were approximately 80% complete before they were installed.
Sugden Way is the first of two developments we’re creating in Barking and Dagenham; we will also be delivering a three-storey apartment block featuring six individual apartments at Mellish Close.
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!
23rd October 2020
The Leader of Barking and Dagenham Council described 13 new modular council owned homes delivered by Rollalong in Barking as “marvellous” following a tour of a show flat this week.
Councillor Darren Rodwell said: “There’s a myth that modular homes are just a cheap type of prefab, but from what I have seen here today at Sugden Way, nothing could be further from the truth.
“These new flats look absolutely marvellous and will provide well built, top-quality homes for local people.”
The new homes were manufactured in a controlled manufacturing environment in our factory in Dorset and are being installed in Sugden Way, Barking, as part of a development managed by Be First for Barking and Dagenham Council.
“At Be First we’re embracing the latest technology to build top-quality new homes fast and deliver them at rents the people of Barking and Dagenham can afford,” said Iain Ferguson, Commercial Director at Be First.
Clive Harris, Construction Manager at Rollalong, said: “This is a very exciting project which will provide a range of high-quality, affordable housing for people in Barking and Dagenham, and we’re delighted with our progress so far.
“There is a shortage of housing in the borough and our modular alternatives to traditional construction offer a real opportunity to address the shortfall in approximately half the time.”
The new homes, which feature one one-bed flat, eight two-bed flats and four three-bed flats, will be completed next month.
The modules were transported to the site and lifted into position and connected together over a five-day period, after which the internal and external finishing process commenced.
Internal finishing times on site were greatly reduced as the modules were approximately 80 per cent complete prior to installation.
The process provides a high-quality building with excellent energy efficiency while minimising disruption to the local environment during the construction process. The façade of the building was constructed traditionally in brick to match similar buildings in the area.
Our photo shows (left to right) Clive Harris, Construction Manager at Rollalong, Councillor Darren Rodwell, Leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, and Iain Ferguson, Commercial Director at Be First Regeneration.
7th October 2020
A new report which urges the Government to build 75,000 modular homes a year highlights the ground-breaking partnership between Rollalong and Magna Housing.
Build Homes, Build Jobs, Build Innovation: A Blueprint for a Housing-Led Industrial Strategy was co-authored by Mark Farmer and Mike De’Ath and is currently being considered by 10 Downing Street.
The report highlights the importance of collaboration and spotlights how Rollalong and Magna Housing are working with Dorset Council to demonstrate that beautiful homes, manufactured locally to very high environmental quality standards, can fit well in the context and local character of the region.
It highlights our work to develop design codes and a pattern book of homes and the parallels to the planning white paper proposals.
Magna Housing has already invested in 95 homes, working closely with planners, and the first three planning consents are demonstrating the design versatility of these homes that benefit from Rollalong’s advanced manufacturing experience which ensures that these homes are not only beautiful but built to last.
The report notes: “We would highlight a progressive approach being currently developed in Dorset where Magna Housing Association in conjunction with their manufacturing partner Rollalong are currently agreeing with Dorset Council how a pre-approved pattern book of typologies … can form the basis for accelerated consent.
“This will then enable the forward ordering of modules by Magna to be held in stock. These can then be drawn down as various sites for themselves and other partners who want to collaborate in a purchasing consortium are developed.
“All of this is planned in one of the most architecturally sensitive areas of the country and will minimise impact on communities and accelerate delivery.”
Mark Farmer, one of the report’s authors, is the Government’s MMC champion whose role is to promote the use of MMC or modern methods of construction (including offsite and modular manufacture of buildings) in the UK.
This is Mr Farmer’s first report since the influential Farmer Review of the UK Construction Labour Model, also known as Modernise Or Die, in 2016.
Steve Chivers, Managing Director of Rollalong, said: “It’s very pleasing that our work with Magna Housing has been highlighted in this important report.
“We want to collaborate with clients who understand the benefits of MMC in terms of safety, quality, speed and flexibility, and it’s a pleasure to work with Magna Housing, who have really embraced MMC as the way forward.”
Paul Read, Assistant Director of Development at Magna Housing, added: “This report rightly emphasises the fact that modern methods of construction and innovative partnerships like ours are the solution when it comes to building new homes.
“We have other clients now keen to come on board and we have listened to their demands. The new 20/21 range is hugely exciting, hitting extremely high environmental standards, but we are also listening closely to how people want to live in these homes. In the midst of a pandemic this means we have increased space and accessibility standards and focused on making them made cheap to heat and maintain.
“By developing a pattern book approach with Rollalong we can accelerate delivery of new housing and achieve economies of scale while still building homes that our residents love.”
The Magna homes range is 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.
Councillor Graham Carr-Jones, Portfolio Holder for Housing at Dorset Council, said: “We’re really pleased with the findings in the report and hope that this will see the start of the creation of new, sustainable housing developments in Dorset.
“Here at Dorset Council we’re also using modular homes as part of our Building Better Lives programme which is a joint initiative with our health partners to deliver new health, social care and housing across the county.”
You can read the full report here: https://www.hta.co.uk/storage/app/media/build-homes-build-jobs-build-innovation.pdf