Swan Housing Association and the Mayor of Tower Hamlets celebrate the delivery of modular homes to the UK’s first mid-rise CLT scheme at Watts Grove

Swan Housing Association is delighted to announce that the first of its precision engineered modular homes have been delivered from its offsite factory in Essex, to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets – making Watts Grove the UK’s first mid-rise CLT modular scheme.

Geoff Pearce, Swan’s Executive Director of Regeneration and Development was joined by The Mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs to witness the delivery of the homes to site, along with officers from Swan and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Watt’s Grove is 100% affordable. The new development will provide 20 rented homes (four social rent and 16 affordable rent) and 45 shared ownership homes, allowing more people to own their own home! Seven of these homes will also be wheelchair accessible/adaptable.

 Watts Grove is the second scheme that Swan has designed to be built in its own modular factory, having already delivered modular homes in Essex. Using precision engineering the modules are built from Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and assembled and fitted out in Swan’s factory. They are delivered to site complete with kitchens, bathrooms and windows and the on-site team then add the external cladding and other finishing touches.

This method of construction dramatically reduces disruption for the surrounding residents during construction as much of the work is completed offsite. These high-quality modular homes can be built in 50% of usual construction timescales, are energy efficient and sustainable, but importantly, they are also indistinguishable from traditionally built homes.

Geoff Pearce, Executive Director of Development and Regeneration, said:

“I am thrilled to have seen the first of our homes delivered to site in Tower Hamlets! Swan is truly committed to delivering innovation, having already seen buyers happily living in their stylish new modular homes in Essex. It was a pleasure to welcome the Mayor to celebrate this milestone and we look forward to welcoming him back to celebrate the completion of these pioneering new homes”

Mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs added:

“It was a pleasure to join the team from Swan to witness the delivery of one of their impressive modular homes. By embracing this modern method of building they will be able to deliver projects faster and with less disruption for our residents. We’ve committed to delivering 2,000 new council homes by 2022 and I’m pleased that we have provided £2.4 million so that 20 of the units on this site will be available for Tower Hamlets residents on our housing register.”