How to Deliver Faster, Safer and More Predictable Schemes
In a market where land is expensive, funding is tight and build costs are volatile, affordable housing schemes live or die on three things:
How quickly you can get from drawdown to first rent or sale How predictable your build cost and programme really are How much technical risk you’re carrying on fire, performance and compliance
Light Gauge Steel Frame (LGSF) is increasingly being used by UK developers to de-risk those three areas, particularly on low-rise and small apartment schemes.
This article explains how LGSF works in practice, why it’s such a strong fit for affordable and mixed-tenure projects, and how HUSECO can support you from early feasibility through to installation.
TL;DR – Why Developers Use LGSF on Affordable Schemes
LGSF superstructures can be erected significantly faster than traditional masonry, shortening the overall programme. Lightweight frames often enable leaner foundation solutions, particularly on challenging ground. A non-combustible primary frame and tested build-ups help satisfy funders, insurers and building control. Factory-produced components and panelised erection improve quality and reduce on-site defects. LGSF works well with high-performance fabric build-ups to meet tightening energy and Future Homes requirements. HUSECO can support you at feasibility stage with early cost ranges, programme assumptions and loading data.
Who We Are: HUSECO in One Paragraph
HUSECO designs, manufactures and installs light gauge steel frames for low-rise residential and small apartment blocks across the UK.
We typically work on schemes from 2–30 units, but our system and processes can scale to much larger developments. Our frames are used on detached and semi-detached houses, terraces, small apartment blocks, rooftop/airspace extensions and various infill sites.
What Is Light Gauge Steel Frame?
Light Gauge Steel Frame (LGSF) uses cold-formed galvanised steel sections (C-profiles, tracks and studs) to create the load-bearing walls, floors and roofs of a building. In a typical project:
The structure is fully modelled in 3D. Steel components are cut and punched with CNC precision. Panels are assembled in a factory environment. Frames are delivered to site as pre-assembled panels or cassettes. The superstructure is erected quickly using bolts, screws and fixings rather than wet trades.
For a developer, the important point is this: you shift a big chunk of risk from a muddy site into a controlled factory environment, while still retaining architectural flexibility and standard UK construction interfaces.
1. Programme: Why Speed Matters So Much on Affordable Housing
On affordable schemes – particularly where rents and sale values are capped – time is not just a convenience, it’s a line item.
LGSF helps you reduce programme in two main ways:
Offsite manufacture in parallel with groundworks While your groundworker is installing foundations and drainage, the frame is being manufactured. When foundations are ready, frames arrive in sequence and go straight up. Rapid route to a dry shell Panelised steel walls and floor cassettes mean you can get to a watertight shell faster. Once the envelope is closed, internal trades can start earlier and in better conditions.
Example: Colchester 5-Unit Luxury Bungalow Scheme
On a recent HUSECO project in Colchester – a 5-unit development of detached, 160 m² luxury bungalows using beam-and-block floors – the light gauge steel frame superstructure was erected in around 5 weeks.
The client’s benchmark for a traditional masonry route was approximately 8 weeks for an equivalent superstructure.
Despite issues with site preparation and foundations (which were not ready for us on the dates originally agreed), the panelised LGSF system allowed the erection phase to stay on track and complete on time.
While this particular scheme was high-end rather than “affordable” in tenure, the same programme benefits translate directly into affordable housing:
Fewer weeks of prelims Reduced risk of weather-related delays Earlier practical completion and income
On schemes where profitability is already tight, those extra weeks are often the difference between “marginal” and “comfortably viable”.
2. Labour and Buildability: Less Reliance on Scarce Skills
Traditional brick-and-block construction is increasingly exposed to labour shortages and fluctuating day rates. LGSF takes a different approach:
Frames are delivered pre-engineered and pre-fabricated. Erection is a repeatable, largely mechanical process: positioning, plumbing, fixing. The work is highly systematic, with detailed assembly drawings and lifting plans.
In practice, a trained installation crew can assemble the frame using a process that is far more repeatable than traditional methods. Developers often compare it – half jokingly, but with some truth – to “putting together flat-pack furniture, just at building scale”.
The result for you:
Reduced dependence on large numbers of highly skilled bricklayers. More predictable labour demand and easier resource planning. Better consistency across multiple plots or phases.
3. Cost and Foundations: Where the Savings Come From
LGSF should not be sold as “cheap for the sake of being cheap”; the value is in how the system interacts with foundations, prelims and risk.
Key economic benefits for developers include:
Lightweight superstructure Steel frames are significantly lighter than equivalent masonry or concrete structures. This reduced load can enable more efficient foundation solutions – particularly useful on poorer ground, sloping sites or where you want to minimise excavation. Lower prelims through shorter programme Even where frame-only costs are similar to traditional options, shaving weeks off the superstructure phase often delivers savings on site overheads, finance and risk exposure. Fewer surprises and variations Because the frame is pre-designed, tolerances are tight and interfaces are clearer, you get fewer late design changes and ad-hoc on-site decisions that can drive cost escalation.
For affordable schemes, the combination of potentially leaner foundations plus a shorter, more predictable programme is often more valuable than simply chasing the lowest £/m² headline number.
4. Fire, Safety and Compliance: A Non-Combustible Core
Fire and safety performance are under intense scrutiny across the UK. Funders, insurers, housing associations and building control teams are understandably cautious.
LGSF provides a robust starting point:
The primary frame is non-combustible steel. Fire resistance is delivered through tested wall, floor and ceiling build-ups using plasterboard, insulation and linings. Systems are engineered and detailed to meet project-specific fire strategy requirements.
From a developer’s point of view, a non-combustible structural frame reduces one major source of concern in technical due diligence. It can also make conversations with mortgage lenders and warranty providers more straightforward.
5. Energy Performance and Future Homes Standard
Affordable housing is not only about low rents – it is also about low running costs for residents and compliance with tightening energy standards.
LGSF works particularly well with high-performance envelopes because:
The frame is precise and dimensionally stable, helping insulation and airtightness details perform as designed. Continuous external insulation can be used to wrap the frame, reducing thermal bridging and improving U-values. The predictable geometry of panelised systems makes it easier to design and install consistent, repeatable details.
As the Future Homes Standard comes into force and local authorities push for fabric-first, low-carbon solutions, being able to reliably hit demanding fabric and airtightness targets becomes a real commercial advantage.
LGSF gives you a structural system that pairs comfortably with the kind of high-performance wall, roof and floor build-ups those regulations demand.
6. Design Flexibility for Real-World Sites
Affordable and mixed-tenure schemes are rarely simple boxes on empty fields. You’re dealing with:
Tight infill plots between existing houses Mixed blocks with apartments over commercial space Split-level buildings and sloping sites Airspace additions on top of existing structures
LGSF is well suited to this reality:
It works very well for low- and mid-rise residential blocks, terraces and clusters of houses. Panelised construction still allows for architectural variety in façades, roof forms and layouts. The system is compatible with a wide range of external finishes: brick, brick slip, render, fibre cement, metal cladding and more.
This gives you the benefits of modern methods of construction while still being able to satisfy planning, context and brand requirements.
7. Site Logistics, Neighbours and Urban Sensitivity
Many affordable housing sites sit in the middle of established communities. Managing disruption is not only a community issue but a planning and political one.
Because LGSF panels arrive fabricated and are erected quickly:
You reduce the volume of on-site cutting, mixing and wet trades. You can reduce the number of deliveries compared with moving huge quantities of loose block and brick. Noise, dust and overall programme length are reduced.
For urban and suburban infill projects, that can make a real difference to local relationships and help honour planning commitments on construction management.
8. How Developers Typically Use LGSF in Their Process
LGSF works best when it’s considered early, not bolted on at the last minute.
A typical pattern with HUSECO-supported schemes looks like this:
Feasibility / Early Stage (Equivalent to RIBA 1–2)
You share outline drawings, approximate GIA, storey heights and unit mix. We provide an order-of-magnitude frame cost range, indicative erection duration and high-level loading information for your engineer. You can compare a traditional route vs LGSF in terms of both cost and programme, before you lock in your structural strategy.
Planning and Developed Design (RIBA 2–3)
We collaborate with your design team to rationalise spans, grids and panel layouts without compromising the planning concept. Key interface zones (stair cores, lift shafts, shear walls, etc.) are identified and optimised. Outline wall, floor and roof build-ups are agreed in principle so energy and fire strategies can be coordinated.
Technical Design and Construction (RIBA 4–5)
We complete detailed frame design, panel drawings and manufacturing information. Frames are manufactured, delivered and erected to an agreed programme, feeding into your wider sequencing and trade packages.
The earlier HUSECO is involved, the more opportunity there is to shape a design that is efficient to manufacture and erect – without sacrificing quality or architectural intent.
9. Our Colchester Project: What It Shows About LGSF in Practice
Returning to the 5-unit luxury bungalow scheme in Colchester, a few key lessons for developers:
Programme resilience: Despite delays and issues with site preparation (foundations not ready on the original dates), the panelised LGSF approach allowed us to recover time and still complete the superstructure within the 5-week window. Ease of erection: The superstructure went together in a highly systematic way. Once the teams were familiar with the sequencing, progress was steady and predictable. Transferability: While this scheme was at the luxury end of the market, the same advantages – speed, predictability and clean interfaces with beam-and-block floors – are directly transferable to affordable housing typologies.
In other words: if it works under time pressure on a high-expectation private scheme, it will work on a value-sensitive affordable one.
10. Run the Numbers: HUSECO Light Gauge Steel Calculator
To make early-stage decisions easier, HUSECO is finalising a free online Light Gauge Steel Frame Calculator for architects, developers and builders.
The calculator is being designed to let you:
Input key scheme parameters (approximate GIA, number of storeys, unit mix, complexity indicators, etc.) Receive an indicative frame cost range and erection duration Use the output for feasibility comparisons and early board papers Send the estimate and drawings directly to HUSECO for a more detailed proposal
This tool is aimed at exactly the stage where many schemes stall: when you are trying to decide whether the numbers stack up enough to proceed.
11. What HUSECO Needs to Provide an LGSF Feasibility View
If you’d like to test LGSF on a live or planned affordable scheme, a basic information pack is usually enough to start:
Site address and brief description PDF drawings (plans, elevations and sections; IFC/DWG if available) Approximate GIA and unit schedule Target storey heights and any key planning constraints Any known ground information (if already available)
With that, we can:
Outline a likely LGSF frame cost range Suggest an indicative erection programme Provide preliminary loading information to help your engineer consider foundations Flag any obvious design adjustments that would improve efficiency
12. The Bottom Line for Affordable Housing Developers
If you are delivering affordable or mixed-tenure housing in the UK, you are operating under pressure from all directions: land costs, construction inflation, interest rates, policy requirements and community expectations.
Light Gauge Steel Frame will not rescue a fundamentally unviable deal. But it does give you a structural strategy that:
Shortens and stabilises your programme Reduces dependence on scarce specialist labour Sits on lighter foundations and integrates well with tricky sites Provides a non-combustible, certifiable structural core Supports the high-performance envelopes demanded by modern regulations
For schemes in the 2–30 unit range and beyond, HUSECO can help you understand – quickly and clearly – whether LGSF strengthens your business case.
Next Step
To explore LGSF for an existing or proposed affordable housing scheme, you can:
Email your drawings and a short project brief to enquiries@huseco.uk, or Share outline details for an early feasibility view and we’ll respond with frame cost and programme indications.
The earlier you test the LGSF option, the more leverage you have to shape the scheme into something that is not only buildable – but genuinely deliverable under real-world constraints
