<p>Countryside has reached a milestone of delivering its 5,000^th closed panel unit to a site from its Warrington factory.</p> <p><span>The mixed-tenure developer delivered the closed panel system to Ribblesdale Place in Accrington, Lancashire, for a two-bedroom end-of-terrace home as part of a 6.2-acre acre site. Countryside is constructing the private rented home for Sigma Capital.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>The 5,000</span>^th<span> MMC (modern methods of construction) unit </span><span>reflects </span><span>the developer’s ambition to deliver around 5,000 modular homes per year to address the housing shortage. Its existing open panel timber frame factory has the capacity to deliver a further 1,000 homes a year.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>Countryside has invested around £30 million in modular panel production. In addition to its factory in Warrington it is due to open its second facility in Bardon, Leicestershire, this autumn. With the business’ wish to be “at the forefront of innovation”, it said it had invested in research and development at the Bardon site.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>It also said its factories would enable the business to reduce the embodied carbon of its homes. It pointed to a carbon lifecycle assessment of its modular panel homes, which revealed a 25% reduction of embodied carbon in the building materials used, compared to traditional brick and block …