A CONSTRUCTION company has its sights set on building part of the athletes village for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Metek Building Systems, part of the MMP Group, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, is in talks with a number of housing associations in the south.

The firm, which manufacturers light steel-framed buildings, hopes to build units for the Olympic village, which will then be converted into housing.

The brownfield site for the Olympic Village is the Lower Lea Valley, in East London.

Metek's managing director Dr Alan Rogan said: "We are looking to provide accommodation for the Olympic Games, which will be used as housing afterwards. We have held a number of meetings and this is a significant opportunity for Metek. We are talking about hundreds of units to house athletes."

The company, which employs more than 70 people at its factory on Aycliffe Industrial Park, has already landed work connected to the Games. It recently signed a £150,000 deal with Como Construction to build a judo centre, which will be used for the Olympics.

Metek is a leader in steel construction, design, manufacturing and site installation.

Dr Rogan said that building a steel frame module within the factory and transporting it to the site has many advantages over traditional construction, especially in winter when weather becomes the industry's worst enemy.

"The biggest advantage has to be the speed of construction," he said. "Instead of taking 16 weeks to build a house, we can do it in 16 days."

Metek has supplied fully-fitted housing modules and frames to many developers, including George Wimpey and Persimmon Homes.

The firm is part of a consortium that last year won a Government competition to build a house for £60,000.

It will supply the steel framing for a housing development in Milton Keynes after its bid with George Wimpey was successful in the Design for Manufacture challenge