Competitor firms collaborate to house army personnel

Two competing timber supply firms are collaborating on a project to house British Army personnel returning to the UK from bases in Germany.The two timber firms, Stewart Milne Timber Systems (SMTS) and Taylor Lane Timber Frame, have been chosen by the contractor Lovell to provide the frames for 450 Ministry of Defence homes that will be constructed on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire for completion by May 2020.The collaboration began when the two individual firms were working on separate sites, SMTS working at Ludgershall while Taylor Lane worked at Bulford, before the two were charged with the operation which now runs at the Larkhill site.The Larkhill site, on Salisbury Plain, covers an expanse of 30 hectares with each firm responsible with the supply of timber to 225 homes each, resulting in the delivery of 16 units of timber to the site per week.The collaboration itself is a part of an initiative by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation which aims to construct 917 homes on the Larkhill, Ludgershall, and Bulford sites which will house military personnel returning from British Army bases in Germany.The Defence Infrastructure Organisation’s initiative functions as a branch of the Ministry of Defence’s ‘re-basing programme’ and aims to re-settle military personnel on the Salisbury Plain where training for the British Army has taken place since 1898.