Big Interview: Mike Ormesher

September 20, 2022

Showhome has a sit-down with Professor Mike Ormesher, Project Director of the Off-Site Homes Alliance

Could you tell us about the history and heritage of Off-Site Homes Alliance (OSHA) and what you do?

OSHA is a collaboration of 23 Registered Providers that has committed to work together to engage with the Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) supply chain to secure high-quality, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable housing delivery.

The alliance was born out of the Homes for the North Consortium and has since developed into its own brand working closely with the MMC sector, local and central government.

What are the goals of the Alliance?

We wish to build a home for life for our residents so, the ambition is to future proof these homes using the most robust technologies and advanced MMC DfMA processes, while at the same time, ensuring that they deliver on cost, quality and real performance.

We also have an ambition to develop and support a training and research facility to improve our collaborative efforts working with our supply partners. We’re exploring the opportunity to enhance the manufacturing propositions our partners offer us.

As MMC and sustainable development go hand in hand, we knew from the start that this was an approach that was essential. So, our ambition is to ensure we’re on this journey with a very robust plan of action so as not to get caught out if leadership, driven by aggregated demand, was not present to support the many manufacturers out there, working on pilot schemes of 5-25 houses to continually prove their propositions and to avoid risk to their clients.

What do you perceive to be the most important industry trend right now?

Conditions have been tough for all in the housing sector over the last 30 months or so, and they continue to put pressure on everyone. Material shortages, rising costs, forensic investigations, employee retention and general skill-base within the MMC industry have all been difficult areas to manage…

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