Agile designs, makes and delivers safe, elegant, low-carbon, affordable homes for people in housing need. Our Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) use carbon-capturing, renewable materials.
What we do
Agile delivers housing solutions. From “blank sheet” to keys in new front doors, our business model unlocks land that is “free and hidden in plain sight”. Our work is people-centred, making our homes accessible and inclusive. Our homes are super-insulated, triple-glazed, airtight and all-electric, lifting people out of fuel poverty. Our homes can be located on small and complex microsites, on stilts, on steep slopes and on rooftops. This is why we are called Agile.
What we can help you with
Agile works to end the housing crisis and meet climate change challenges.
We remove land acquisition costs from the equation and use Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) to build our homes rapidly, to tight specifications from renewable, carbon-capturing materials.
We build in social value too, offering skills and training to prisoners, manufacturing homes in prison workshops. This increases people’s ability to find work and a home on release, reducing reoffending risks.
We believe everyone should have a safe, civil, high-quality, low-carbon home, whether they be homeless, in temporary housing, renting or seeking to own their own home.
Our solution
Agile can deliver homes without having to bear land acquisition costs.
We do this by combining know-how in community-led housing, by unlocking the land supply created by the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act and in-depth understanding of the Caravan Act.
Innovative design, MMC and clever engineering unlocks small and complex sites, as well as rooftop development.
The Self-build Act requires local authorities in England to offer land to Custom Build and Community-led Housing groups before it can be sold on the open market. This land can be transacted at Social Value rather than usual public-sector test of Best Value.
Benefits of working with us
By removing land costs and through socially impactful, low-cost manufacture, Agile transforms total development costs. Our work delivers socially-rented and affordable accommodation for individuals and communities, who would otherwise struggle to find a home.
Building with bio-based, renewable carbon-capturing, materials, we match project costs £ for £ with social value.
Case study
Emmaus Rooftop Community demonstrates our disruptive innovation. We secured planning approval for 15 one and two-bedroom homes on the rooftop of Emmaus Bristol, a homelessness charity that provides their “Companions”, formerly homeless people, with a place to live and purposeful work.
Emmaus has two key challenges:
while they can purchase homes on the edge of the city, the commute is unsustainable.
revenue from their High Street presence is decreasing year-on-year.
Agile demonstrated that the charity and Companions are a community and was able to:
secure funding for the project from Homes England’s Community Housing Fund; and
obtain planning approval at no cost to Emmaus.
The innovative proposal showed that the space above the charity’s offices and warehouse could be engineered cost-effectively to support a platform on top of which 15 new homes could be built. The 15 homes will house eight companions and others in housing need at social rents
