Ilke wins 123-home housing association deal

Modular provider Ilke has won a contract alongside housebuilder Keepmoat to provide 123 homes for South west housing association Abri in Highbridge, Somerset.

Abri, a 35,000-strong association formed from the merger of Radian and Yarlington in 2019, has signed a deal with Ilke and Keepmoat to develop the homes on the Homes England-owned Brue Farm site.

All of the homes will be affordable, with 60 available to rent and the rest for shared ownership. They will be manufactured at Ilke’s 250,000 sq ft factory in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, before being delivered to Brue Farm.

Gary Orr, group chief executive at Abri said the association had made a commitment to significantly increase its new home development programme through using MMC methods. He said: “Offsite manufacturing offers many advantages. Not only can we reduce the impact on the environment, improve energy efficiency for customers but we’ll also significantly accelerate the supply of affordable homes that are needed.”

Dave Sheridan, executive chairman at ilke Homes, said: “Our precision-engineering techniques, as well as our utilisation of the latest technology, also means that the homes will be some of the most sustainable in the country as we’re able to model the energy performance of each.”

The deal is the latest in a string of contracts for Ilke signed since the modular firm - which has the backing of Homes England - was forced to open a redundancy consultation with some staff at the start of the pandemic.