Westbury enters prefabrication

Westbury, the UK's sixth largest housebuilder, is entering the prefabrication business to halve the time it takes to build a typical house.

The firm has spent £10m on a former double glazing factory at Castle Bromwich in Birmingham and the setting up of a new business called Space4 Limited.

Production is due to start early in 2001 and 5,000 homes a year are expected to be built in eight weeks, down from the current figure of 16.

A Space4 house will involve creating a timber wall frame with insulation injected between an inner wall of plasterboard and an outer wall of cement particleboard.

The prefabrication process is seen by housebuilders as a way of combating a shortage of skilled tradesmen while its is seen as an easier way of building homes than outside.

Beazer already has one factory in Scotland while a number of other housebuilders are exploring the benefits of factory manufactured components.