Swan is latest housing developer to drop CLT for high-rise due to post-Grenfell legislation.

16 January 2020


Following the recent announcement by L&G, Swan have joined the list of developers evaluating concrete and steel alternative for residential units over 18m.

Despite a successful completion of the mid-rise, 6-storey Watts Grove development Tower Hamlets, East London, which included 65 residential units, the use of CLT in their modular program will now be restricted to two and three storey residential housing.

The company has invested £3m in a modular production facility in Basildon, Essex with a capacity to construct 400 homes per year.

A statement released to us by Swan confirmed “Swan will continue to use Cross Laminated Timber for our offsite manufacturing production in residential construction under 18m as we still believe that CLT is one of the best products to utilise in residential construction.  The reasons we chose to use CLT initially (design flexibility, environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, fire and acoustic performance) still apply.  We have a further 700 homes planned for manufacture utilising CLT and these will continue to be precision engineered in our innovative factory in Basildon creating local jobs and investing in UK manufacturing.”

“We also have a significant future pipeline of development, including major projects in Purfleet and Southend-on-Sea, where these homes include buildings over 18m high and, so for these, we are exploring a steel framed alternative approach to ensure we can continue to benefit from offsite construction to improve quality, decrease construction times and create sustainable homes.”