As part of moving the work of Bromford towards more radical and disruptive thinking and doing - we now focus on ‘wicked problems’ capable of being turned into opportunities.

We’ve now completed our work on Affordable Warmth and have finalised recommendations for the issue of Loneliness.

The next problem we want to look at is:

Why does it cost so much to build a home and what can Bromford do about it?

One of our three key strategic objectives is: An increasing supply of the right homes

Alex Dixon and his team have already kicked off their thinking on this and the Lab has hosted several framing sessions.

Now we want to turn this into a major theme of work.

Some of the questions we want to consider include:

What is the affordable rent going forward that customers can pay and what can we build for this?
What are our construction costs and how could we reduce them by 50%?
What other costs can be squeezed out? We’ll do our own sums but Alastair Parvin outlines some opportunities in a great piece here.
Why are we so focussed on creating properties that last 100 years? Will 25, 15 or even 5 do?
Could the MyPlace/ Extra Care model be adapted for a different audience?
Could we be more flexible around tenure options for new or emerging markets?
How do tiny homes, container homes and wiki homes fit into the Bromford equation?
What options are there for smarter , more connected homes?
How do we reverse the default to traditional build - what are the new partnerships we could explore?
If our product range was a series of 3D printed customisable shells what would this look like?
With 30 pubs closing down every week and a host of community buildings lying empty - how could they be remodelled using design, smarter tech and new thinking?

Ultimately - we should aim to produce researched, costed and prototype designs of the four of five home and tenure products for the 21st Century.

Watch this space as the concept launches in late August.