The Nu Build story

The city of Stoke on Trent faces unique challenges. Like many cities in the UK it needs new housing, lots of it, housing which is attractive, affordable and lives up to the expectations of stringent new Government targets.

RENEW North Staffordshire is the agency tasked with delivering a programme of improvements to shape the long term future of the region and transform the local housing market with more than £2 billion of investment. 

The RENEW team recognise that introducing modern methods of construction into the mix is vital to ensure it meets the objective to make new homes carbon neutral by 2016.

Add into the equation the ambition to ensure that new housing equals new jobs and new skills for the local workforce, and you need a well thought out plan to achieve both goals.

RENEW gathered together some of the most respected industry bodies and organisations to ensure it found not only a solution that met local needs but also one which would be equally relevant for regions across the UK – all of whom face the same challenges.

RENEW has worked for several years to identify modern methods of construction which suit the North Staffordshire market and to identify a company that will potentially set up a plant in the region.

They found the answer with Streif UK, who manufacture houses using modern methods of construction at their German factory and who see real potential to expand into the UK market.

Negotiations with Streif led to the building of two homes at the highly respected Stoke on Trent College – a Centre of Vocational Excellence for Construction Training. The homes were manufactured in Germany and shipped over to the UK where they were constructed on site within just two weeks. 

The Nu Build scheme is a unique venture – it is the only place in the UK that has assembled units on site for training purposes.

And the college is now equipped to train the local construction industry with the skills to build the Streif homes and implement those skills on the planned building of 81 homes at the flagship City Waterside development, in Stoke-on-Trent and 40 further homes in nearby Crewe.

RENEW’s vision also goes one step further. By training the workforce to build homes locally, you also create a team capable of helping construct these homes in other parts of the UK – and even opening the door to a potential production plant being sited in the region.

Meanwhile the two showhomes are earning their keep as the Midlands and North West’s regional knowledge centre for the construction industry – acting as a permanent exhibition for affordable MMC homes and demonstrating some of the elements that enable the achievement of level 4 of the code for sustainable homes.

The houses themselves and the college’s adjoining Seddon Building host monthly seminars for the construction industry as well as exhibitions highlighting cutting edge construction industry innovations. (link to forthcoming events)

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