Flying Factory Partners

Creating Enterprise is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cartrefi Conwy Housing Association. The organisation was set up as a Social Enterprise to provide a wide range of property maintenance activity to both private and public sector, reinvesting profits to give those furthest from the job market workplace opportunities. With an exclusive license to deliver in North Wales, Creating Enterprise set up their Beattie Passive Factory in Holyhead and embarked on an ambitious development programme to build energy efficient, sustainable and affordable homes across the North Wales Coast.

To date, Creating Enterprise has completed 9 Beattie Passive schemes consisting of 104 homes – a tremendous achievement that brings high quality homes to local communities.

Andrew Bowden, CEO at Cartrefi Conwy, said: “Beattie Passive not only deliver high quality Passivhaus homes, they also actively engage with the local community to bring vital skills and education in construction. These values run parallel to our own and having outlined our housing objectives, it was clear that a Factory would be hugely effective in helping us to achieve them. We look forward to a long and productive relationship with Beattie Passive.”

New Meaning Construction works closely with its social enterprise sister company, New Meaning Training. Working together, these two organisations help to build something very special, living up to their Group’s mantra – Building Strengths, Building Futures, Building Lives. New Meaning Training teaches and encourages young people who aren’t school-shaped to learn new skills and helps them to develop their confidence, self-belief and life skills.

Back in 2016, Beattie Passive provided training for five learners from New Meaning Training at our Training Academy in Norfolk. Fast forward to today, and these trainees have become highly proficient Passivhaus technicians on New Meaning Construction sites. New Meaning Construction Flying Factories continue to pop up in numerous locations and clients love the social impact that working with New Meaning brings.

New Meaning has completed 7 schemes consisting of 17 highly energy efficient, low carbon homes, with many, many more in the pipeline.

“We came across the Beattie Passive system five years ago and instantly saw how it would support our vision to establish New Meaning Training and Works centres. The fact that the Beattie Passive structures can be built using one/two skilled tradespeople and the rest can be unskilled was particularly attractive to us because it supports our training and positive reinforcement model. By training unskilled workers in a relatively short period of time, we can expand the number of build contracts and work placements that we can deliver.”

Canna Developments worked in partnership with Newydd Housing Association and Parc Prison to deliver an award-winning scheme in Wales.

Canna Developments completed our Flying Factory training and supervised prisoners from Parc Prison to manufacture the small panels which make up each home. Canna Developments has also given site experience to prisoners with relevant trade skills and even employed them upon their release from prison.

Rhodri Crandon, Managing Director of Canna Developments, said: “Canna Developments provided social housing in partnership with Newydd Housing Association in the town of Llangan – an area that has seen rising property prices, pushing residents out of the area. The Beattie Passive Flying Factory license gave us the opportunity to participate in Parc Prison’s rehabilitation programme, which enabled inmates to learn new construction skills.”

Stonewater is a social housing provider that currently manages around 33,600 homes across England for over 75,000 customers, including affordable properties for general rent, shared ownership and sale, in addition to retirement and supported living schemes.

Stonewater embarked on its first Beattie Passive project in Chard, Somerset, with Aschot Construction Ltd. Aschot Construction completed the Flying Factory Training and delivered the Beattie Passive build system onsite.

Charlotte Brace, Special Projects Manager at Stonewater, said: “We’re incredibly excited to be working in partnership with Beattie Passive and Ashcot Construction for this pilot. There are many benefits to delivering a project like this, including reduced transport costs and being able to work closely with the local labour force to deliver social and economic benefits to the community. But there are also cost-saving benefits for our customers.”

Celtic Horizons delivers asset management and estate services for United Welsh, spanning over 11 local authority areas in South Wales. Following a recent Welsh Government directive to increase the energy efficiency of Welsh housing, Celtic Horizons undertook the Beattie Passive Flying Factory Training with plans to set up their own Flying Factory in Caerphilly.

Being passionate about improving the lives of less advantaged people, Celtic Horizons hope that their Flying Factory will help to train a new generation of unskilled workers into the building industry, to help address skills shortages in the local area and provide longevity to the industry.

Alan Rogers, Managing Director of Celtic Horizons, said: “In light of a recent Welsh Government directive to increase the energy efficiency of Welsh housing and to reduce fuel poverty, we were looking for a new build system that would help us work towards these goals. We found out about the Beattie Passive system, and saw that it delivered highly insulated, energy efficient homes as standard and thought that this would be perfect.”

Probuild Limited is located in Hertfordshire and has a keen interest in training and gaining knowledge in order to provide specialist expertise in sustainable buildings, renewables and improving energy efficiency. The Probuild team attended our Flying Factory Training Academy in February 2020 and set up a Flying Factory in Hertfordshire to deliver their first Beattie Passive homes in Baldock and Aston.

Brad Kelly, Director of Probuild Limited, said: “The build system is very simple, but effective. Simple to build, simple to get everything spot on, and it provides absolutely everything you want. I can’t fault it.”

Pure Haus is a housebuilder, located in Leeds, that focuses on building Passivhaus standard homes within the Yorkshire region. Committed to building homes with a greatly reduced energy demand, and moving towards building carbon-neutral homes, the Pure Haus team attended our Flying Factory training and were supported by our team during their first build in Yorkshire.

David Bradley-Bowles, Director of Pure Haus, said: “We chose Beattie Passive because the method of construction looks very simple – it’s attractive that young people can gain skills and be trained to go through the process of doing it, overseen by one or two skilled tradesmen. Ultimately, it’s the simplicity of the build system and the comprehensiveness, covering all aspects of building: the floors, the walls and the ceiling.”

Yoker Housing Association is a small community-based Housing Association in Glasgow. Designs are underway for 15 new bungalows and cottage flats on the former Blawarthill Hospital site in Scotland. These will be manufactured in a local Flying Factory by a social enterprise, Community Workforce Partnership, who train hard-to-reach people aged between 18 to 24 years old.

Lesley Bryce, Development Officer, said: “The Beattie Passive houses will be built using local labour under the employability model. This model will enable the trainees to move from welfare to work – providing them with a waged training placement and certified qualifications. The project is expected to recruit up to 40 trainees during the course of the programme, providing them with training to enable them to progress in the mainstream labour market.”

The Wrekin Housing Trust and its partners have been awarded a £650,000 Government grant to provide a training hub aimed at providing opportunities for the unemployed, addressing Shropshire’s housing shortage, and boosting the county’s construction industry. The factory training hub will be equipped to focus upon learning skills used in the construction of Passivhaus homes.

Known as the ‘Marches Construction Ready Partnership’ the group, which includes Beattie Passive, aims to introduce around 400 trainees to the construction sector, by training the long-term unemployed, students and people looking to make a career change into the construction industry.

David Wells, The Wrekin Housing Trust’s Head of Operational Services, said: “We are looking forward to working with Beattie Passive over the coming months as partners on the Marches Construction Ready Partnership, and as we deliver the programme, we are looking forward to seeing the Flying Factory and whole timber frame technology concepts for ourselves.”