CivicFirst

A Home for
the Meanwhile

Safe, warm homes for families who need somewhere now, on land that would otherwise sit empty.

A two-storey block of timber-clad Meanwhile homes across a lawn, with a play area of a grassy mound with a slide and swings, a cycle shelter, and old brick buildings and trees behind.
The Housing Emergency

Temporary solution.
Permanent cost.

Britain can’t house all its families. So they wait, for months, often years, in unsuitable stopgaps. In that time, they lose their health, dignity and opportunities. All at a cost councils can’t sustain.

135K

135,580 households are living in temporary accommodation

177K

177,530 children are
part of those households

£2.93B

£2.93bn is spent by councils
on stopgaps in a single year

Seen from behind, a mother with a backpack and bags of belongings stands with her young son in front of a shut black door.

For years, councils have had no choice but to place families in hotels and B&Bs that were never meant to be homes. Now budgets, families and communities are all feeling the strain.

is focused
on solving this crisis.

The front of a meanwhile home: timber cladding, a dark front door under a small canopy, and a window.

Meanwhile accommodation has been reimagined to give residents dignity and councils a cost-effective answer they can trust. CivicFirst handles everything, from planning to maintenance.

A two-storey block of timber-clad Meanwhile homes with dark front doors under small canopies, a steel access deck and stair, parking bays and young trees in front, and old red-brick mill buildings behind.
Engineered for purpose Built off-site, installed in weeks, and designed to last as long as it’s needed. Each Meanwhile scheme turns an underused plot into homes councils can rely on.
Close-up of a meanwhile home's front: a dark front door with a long steel handle under a small canopy, a wall light, and a window reflecting old brick buildings, set in vertical timber cladding.
Designed for dignity Each Meanwhile home is fully self-contained, with its own kitchen, bathroom and entrance. No shared corridors, no institutional feel. Insulated and heated to residential standards.
A meanwhile home's bathroom: white walls, wood-effect floor, a bath with a glass screen and thermostatic shower, a wall-hung basin with a black tap, a mirror, a chrome towel radiator and a back-to-wall WC.
Made for daily routines Full bathrooms providing thermostatic Mira showers, enclosed glass shower screens and back-to-wall WCs: the same fittings specified in private housing.

Manufactured
to standard

  • BSI ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management
  • BOPAS Plus, Buildoffsite Property Assurance Scheme
  • BSI ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management
  • Lloyd's Register
  • BSI ISO 14001 Environmental Management

Transform
underutilised sites

The same site before: an empty, overgrown car park with faded bay markings, weeds and wildflowers in the cracks, brick buildings and an industrial shed behind. Two blocks of timber-clad Meanwhile homes with solar panels, one with an access deck and stair, beside a cycle shelter, new parking bays and young trees, with brick buildings, an industrial shed and mature trees behind.

Get in touch.

We’ll talk you through Meanwhile by CivicFirst,
what it costs, and how quickly it could be delivered.

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