Tai Tarian and SO Modular partnership
Two Neath Port Talbot organisations working in partnership demonstrates how targeted funding from Welsh Government promotes innovation and collaboration
Author: Woodknowledge Wales
This case study was authored as part of the Home-grown Homes project and was funded by Welsh Government
Summary
Two Neath Port Talbot organisations are working together to make a significant contribution to advanced manufacturing and the retrofit and new development of social housing in Wales. The partnership demonstrates how targeted funding from Welsh Government promotes innovation and collaboration.
Timber processing and Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) are key to the success of this collaboration. The partnership between Tai Tarian, one of Wales’ largest social housing providers, and advanced timber manufacturer, Sevenoaks (SO) Modular, demonstrates how financial intervention alongside creative thinking can drive change in the construction sector. This level of government support also creates employment opportunities and develops skills across the timber supply chain and construction sector.
Key Players
Tai Tarian is one of the largest social landlords in Wales. Based in Baglan Energy Park, the company owns and manages over 9,000 homes across Neath Port Talbot. Created by the transfer of Neath Port Talbot’s housing stock in 2011. Tai Tarian is actively improving its existing homes to meet the latest standards as well as building new homes and is committed to becoming a carbon neutral organisation by 2030 ensuring its new homes achieve high levels of sustainability.
“Tirnod has been created as a subsidiary of Tai Tarian and enables us to work in partnership with SO Modular across a number of joint aspirations, not least, increasing the number of homes built using modern methods of construction. Our goal is to invest in local communities in a sustainable way and through this partnership we achieve that by supporting the development of local skills and through providing training and work opportunities”.
Linda Whittaker, Chief Executive, Tai Tarian
SO Modular was established in 1996 and is based in Neath. It designs, manufactures and erects timber frame, panelised and fully modular housing from timber. It works with its sister company, JG Hale, local authorities and housing associations in the development of commercial, housing and education projects across Wales and the West country. The company has been manufacturing closed panel timber frames for many years and in recent years, has made the move into more innovative forms of manufacturing, producing closed panel wall systems with the external skin of the building incorporated onto the panel, along with volumetric systems. Electrical and plumbing services, kitchens and bathrooms, plaster boarding, painting, windows and doors, as well as external cladding, are all installed and completed in the factory before delivery to site. This focus on off-site manufacturing produces real efficiencies, improves building performance, safety and sustainability, reduces waste and leads to less disruption for communities where projects are being developed.
“We have grown a reputation for providing a premium quality product and we now have the resources, people, machinery and product lines to increase the number and variety of homes we can provide the housing sector, meaning people can now live in warmer and more sustainable homes, built at speed inside our factory.”
Charlotte Hale, Director, SO Modular
Narrative
Neath Port Talbot social housing landlord, Tai Tarian, created a wholly owned subsidiary called Tirnod. This enabled them to invest £2.85M of Welsh Government funding into the purchase of timber processing equipment.
SO Modular, based at the iconic ‘Metal Box’ factory in Neath, leased the equipment to process timber sourced from Pontrilas Sawmills more efficiently. Access to new machinery facilitated the transformation of both product lines and output.
Working together in partnership, Tai Tarian and SO Modular transformed the former’s County Flats development in Aberavon. Retrofitting existing homes to a high standard, which included the incorporation of timber framed modular units, enabled Tai Tarian to increase the number of homes available for tenants to rent at the scheme.
Welsh Government support is key to sustainable construction initiatives
Welsh Government has encouraged SO Modular’s move to manufacture components for social homes in a factory, a process referred to as Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). Government wants to see the development of more sustainable solutions to decarbonise the economy and the built environment. It also wants to support initiatives and innovation in the circular and foundational economy.
Funding has been directed towards social housing providers willing to adopt MMC and off-site construction of timber components for social housing. As part of its Innovative Housing Programme, Welsh Government wanted to find a way of supporting the SO Modular’s investment in the systems, processes and equipment it needed to significantly expand and improve its operation, products and output.
Key financial agreement supports collaboration
In 2020, a dialogue between SO Modular, the Welsh Government and Tai Tarian focused on how financial support could best be secured. Key to that financial agreement was the creation of a new trading subsidiary, Tirnod. The subsidiary was created by Tai Tarian to receive an interest free loan of £2.85M from Welsh Government to enable the purchasing of equipment. SO Modular then leased the equipment they required from Tirnod, on the understanding that most of its output would focus on the provision of social housing related assets acquired by, or for, local authorities and housing associations in Wales. Combined with £954,000 of direct funding from SO Modular, this produced an overall investment of £3.8M in the factory.
This collaborative approach supported an increase in the number of new homes built off-site, as well as local opportunities for training and work. The new relationships also highlighted new opportunities for collaboration between Tai Tarian, SO Modular and other partners (including research organisations) across the local supply chain.
Transforming timber manufacturing product lines and output
The investment enabled SO Modular to lease and install equipment to process timber more efficiently, transforming its product lines and output.
Equipment included:
- high-performance saws capable of maximising the use of timber,
- a treatment plant to allow for timber to be preservative treated on site,
- cranes capable of lifting the heavy timber components across the factory floor,
- a wood fibre blower to allow for timber frames to have insulation factory-fitted, and
- a wall saw to enable boards to be cut vertically.
Various manufacturing tables and storage racks were installed to enable components to be fixed square, lifted and turned over. This allows workers to access them from both sides. In addition, the factory was fitted with compressors, compressed air equipment and hoses, a dust extraction system, and computer kit to enable digital drawings to be transferred to the saws for rapid and efficient timber processing.
The equipment was commissioned in May 2021. Since then, SO Modular has:
- produced 35% more panelised timber frame systems,
- started the design and manufacture of volumetric modular systems,
- developed three new sustainable panelised systems using natural insulation,
- reduced waste by 15% and in turn reduced the costs of production,
- reduced reportable health and safety incidents to zero,
- improved the build quality and fabric performance of the systems it manufactures, and
- kick-started the development of an offsite training centre.
The timber SO Modular uses is home-grown and supplied by Pontrilas Sawmills. Both organisations have worked hard to ensure the regular supply of material best suited to the manufacturing process and to overcome some of the challenges of using material from the Welsh forests.
Meeting housing quality standards
Tai Tarian and SO Modular are working closely on social housing projects in the Neath and Port Talbot area. Tai Tarian’s County Flats Project in Aberavon is seeing the transformation of a series of 1960s-built flats into accommodation that meets current housing quality standards. Alongside the retrofitting of existing flats, construction teams are erecting timber frames and modular units to extend and increase the number of units available on site. The project is a perfect example of how Welsh Government’s financial support has enabled the rapid and innovative regeneration of this area. requirement for timber usage will need to be supported by increased timber production from home-grown sources.
Impact
This investment illustrates the effective use of Welsh Government finance to enable timber industry and construction stakeholders to innovate and up-scale their manufacturing process. This level of support has helped transform off-site manufacturing and ultimately delivered more and better-quality social housing.
For Woodknowledge Wales, this case study demonstrates how important it is that public subsidy is used creatively to support industry in line with Government policy. Direct collaboration between a social housing provider and a manufacturer forged a new kind of supply chain relationship. This relationship brought the design and manufacturing process together, improved collective understanding, and maximised the opportunity for innovation and process and construction efficiencies.
