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The recent decision by investment and pensions giant Legal & General to wind down its modular housing factory comes as a significant blow for confidence in the future of offsite manufacturing. Modular construction has had its fair share of problems recently; failures include Caledonian Modular in March and House by Urban Splash in May last year.

The L&G decision is particularly significant because the company manages £1.3tn of assets, more than the UK government spends in a year, and as a pension provider it favours long-term investment.It is fair to assume that L&G, which has lost £174m on the venture over seven years, did not see any prospect of long-term returns.

On the flip side, some companies such as Tide Construction/Vision Modular have made it work. There is a queue of investors including insurance company Aviva and housebuilder Persimmon lining up to pour money into modular housebuilder TopHat. And offsite manufacturing has become the default for building services and cladding specialists.