COMMENT The growing importance of ESG within the housing industry over recent years is undeniable. As a result, industry leaders are increasingly looking at various ways to implement core ESG principles within their business models, serving to make their assets more profitable while also creating real, tangible social value that leaves a positive, lasting impact on communities, now and in the future.
At Hill, the “S” in ESG has been embedded in our culture since our inception more than 20 years ago. Hill Group was founded on affordable housing delivery, and this has supported our growth and evolution into a successful housebuilder and placemaker of diverse and thriving communities ever since. Our commitment to delivering industry-leading social value to communities has only grown stronger over the years, culminating in our initiative to address homelessness, the antithetical issue to building new homes.
Foundation 200, our £15m pledge, was set up in late 2019 to provide high-quality follow-on accommodation for people experiencing periods of homelessness, providing a safe roof over their heads while they rebuild their lives with the support of local homelessness charity partners. The foundation committed to gifting 200 modular homes over five years to support those most in need as the crisis deepened with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Plug-and-play housing
Using our expertise, we have fulfilled the ambition of Foundation 200 by creating SoloHaus, the first modular home designed specifically for use as follow-on accommodation to ease homelessness.
The homes are built at our factories in Telford and Shrewsbury at a pre-installed unit cost of around £48,000 per unit. The houses are robust and easy to transport, and arrive fully complete and ready for simple site connection and commissioning. They present a viable solution for helping ease homelessness while avoiding the ongoing expenses associated with traditional temporary accommodation provision.
We have already delivered three SoloHaus developments in Cambridge, with land donated by Cambridge City Council and local homelessness charity Jimmy’s providing ongoing resident support. More recently, we were proud to welcome London deputy mayor Tom Copley to a launch event where we handed over 33 SoloHaus homes to Haringey Council, the development becoming the first MMC modular scheme specially designed to house rough sleepers in London.
A place to recover
SoloHaus homes are designed for a single person and come fully equipped with everything residents need, including furniture, white goods and bedding. Each modular home provides the individual with a safe and comfortable space to get back on their feet, find work and move towards independence.
Thanks to air-source heat pumps and mechanical ventilation heat recovery systems, they are extremely energy efficient, with running costs of less than £5 per week. SoloHaus homes have been designed to meet Future Homes Standards, exceeding building regulations for energy efficiency and sound insulation, and with a design life of 60 years, they provide a short-term solution to vulnerable individuals who have nowhere to call home.
While no organisation can solve this massive problem on its own, we hope that by taking a step in the right direction, others will follow suit and make use of our modular solution, which is available to be accessed by all. Our product is the perfect opportunity for industry peers who want to raise their ESG credentials without any considerable detriment to their profit margins.
Solutions such as SoloHaus happen through innovative collaborations. The private sector needs to come together with local authorities and charities to address the important social issues in our communities. We are now calling on the government, local authorities and landowners to back the initiative and help identify small plots of underused land as sites for the homes.
Beyond the 200 units we are gifting, the modular units are in production and available for local authorities and charities to purchase in the quantities that they require.
We aim to ensure that the SoloHaus remains affordable and accessible to as many partners as possible so that we can collectively – as an industry and as a country – do more to create truly diverse housing solutions.
Andy Hill is chief executive of Hill Group
