Up to 140 'genuinely affordable' new homes to be built in factory and lifted into place on Milton Keynes estate

Up to 140 new modular homes are to be built on a seven acre site on Whitehouse estate.

Specialist company ilke Homes has bought the land from L&Q Estates on the estate, which will ultimately boast 4,330 new homes.

Subject to planning permission, ilke’s homes will be constructed at the company’s factory in Knaresborough in North Yorkshire and then lifted onto the site.

The process is much quicker and more cost efficient than building homes in the conventional way.

The finished homes will be “genuinely affordable’ as well as highly energy efficient, and consist of a mix of houses and apartments ranging from one to four bedrooms, says ilke.

Not less than 30 per cent of the homes are expected to be made available for affordable tenures.

L&Q Estates is the master planner behind the development at Whitehouse, which is expected to create hundreds of jobs, 4,300 homes, a secondary school, three primary schools, a health facility, indoor sports and other leisure facilities, and play areas.

ilke Homes is the first modular house builder to be delivering factory-built homes at Whitehouse. An increasing number of developers and investors are choosing to deliver their schemes using offsite manufacturing, where homes are precision-engineered along production lines.

The company says the precision-engineering techniques employed in the factory mean that the finish of every home is to an exceptional standard.

Investors are also under increasing pressure to reduce the environmental impact and carbon footprint of the homes they manage. A

ll of ilke’s homes achieve the highest EPC ratings, an ‘A’, meaning investors will not have to undergo costly retrofitting programmes once new building regulations come into force in 2025.

ilke Homes will be submitting a Reserved Matters planning application to Milton Keynes City Council later this month and, subject to planning consent, the company anticipates starting work on site by the end of 2023.

The first homes are expected to be installed from Summer 2024.

Tom Heathcote, executive director of development at ilke Homes, said: “Our teams are excited to be working alongside L&Q Estates and some of the UK’s most well-known house builders as part of this fantastic consortium, which promises to deliver a well-designed community with placemaking at its heart.

“Since launching in 2020, our land-led, turnkey offering has seen exponential growth, demonstrating the strength of our vertically-integrated approach to development.”

Adrian Clack, managing director of L&Q Estates, said: “L&Q Estates and Milton Keynes City Council have been involved in the development of this site for over 20 years, facilitating the delivery of much-needed homes, social infrastructure and facilities for the community in Whitehouse.

"Modular housing is a really exciting advancement in building energy-efficient properties at a much faster rate and it will be fantastic to see these high-quality properties lowered into place for families to move into and start creating their dream homes.

"These will be the first modular homes in Whitehouse and we look forward to the first families moving into them next year.”