TopHat, the modular housebuilder backed by Goldman Sachs, is to open a new factory in Northamptonshire from which it will be able to manufacture a new home every hour.

The site in Corby, due to open late next year, will be 650,000 sq ft — about the size of 11 football pitches — making it the biggest modular housing factory in Europe.

TopHat believes the facility will help to address the chronic undersupply of new houses in the UK.

Based on a 16 hours a day, five days a week operating schedule, that would mean about 4,000 new homes a year, which would establish TopHat as one of the country’s biggest housebuilders. Last year, only a handful of developers built more than 5,000 houses. Bosses

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