A package of measures to give as many people as possible the opportunity to build their own homes has been launched by housing minister Grant Shapps – amid the astonishing claim that 14,000 people a year are already self-building.
If correct, the number puts the achievements of Britain’s biggest builders well and truly in the shade: last year, Barratt could only manage 11,171 homes, whilst Taylor Wimpey built 10,180.
Shapps also claimed that a budget of £150,000 would be enough to self-build a three to four-bedroom home.
He was joined at the launch at 10 Downing Street by self-build experts including Kevin McCloud.
Shapps said new measures would, for the first time, enable anyone wanting to don a hard hat and build their own home to get the help, advice and support they need to get started.
He said: “Last year, self-builders accounted for about 14,000 new homes in this country – more than many large commercial builders.
“Yet our self-build industry still lags behind much of the rest of the world, with the opportunity to build your own home seen as something only for a select few.
“That’s why today I’m pledging to back the self-build boom and support the industry to double in size over the next few years.
“As well as a new website giving help and advice, we’re working hard to identify more land for development and have reformed the planning rules to stop people’s aspirations getting tangled in red tape.
“This package of measures is designed to ensure anyone looking to build their own home gets the support they need – and with the numbers of mortgages available set to rise by a massive 141%, there’s never been a better time for people to lay their own foundations.”
Ted Stevens, chairman of the National Self Build Association, said: “More than half the UK population would like to one day build their own homes, and around two million families are keen to get their projects off the ground in the very near future.
“The new self-build portal will help them figure out what, realistically, they can afford to build; it will explain how their budgets can go further if they team up with other would-be self builders or do a portion of the work themselves, and it highlights the parts of the UK where it can be cheaper to find a site and construct a home.”
Kevin McCloud, whose ‘Grand Designs’ programme regularly features self-build projects that have gone way over budget, said: “I believe we can become a nation of self-builders.”
The claim that there will be a 141% rise in self-build mortgages was made in a Datamonitor report in January. However, the report also says that self-build mortgages would only account for 1% of all lending even after such growth.
www.selfbuildportal.org.uk
Comments
There is a big difference between giving people the freedom and means to self-build (absolutely necessary) and actively encouraging them to do so (is this a Government responsibility?). As more people are encouraged to do this, and these people are by definition amateurs, this will likely lead to a new tv series, maybe it'll be called "Self-builds from hell'?
@Land at The Land Office
Party wall agreement - dont make me laugh - neighbours cant do anything if they dont respond and you then carry on. Had this with a builder client years ago and his barrister said there was nil the neighbour could do to enforce it. Had my neighbour start work without one with me so I tortured the builder and made him do work for me at no cost. Much cheaper than getting a surveyor in to tell me what I knew allready.
Tony has got it spot on. The supply of land is being halted in some areas eg Three Rivers District Council where they have had a good land supply from windfall sites, which serve the larger builders, so they've imposed very high CIL charges which stops sites being worth selling.
The smaller builders will be out of work or looking in other areas, which is tough on jobs and on land owners now facing CIL (tax) on their primary residence when they try to sell off a plot which they always intended to do as part of their pension planning. This needs to be addressed. Since when should Local Planning Authorities be allowed to impose taxes on primary resindence without Parliamentary debate?
We've also seen a few projects lately where difficult neighbours (and surveyors) have held up the pary wall agreement for up to three months! This slows down development and adds to the interest and cashflow burden faced by developers.
In one case, a developer who has kept people in work for ten years has them sitting at home because of a surveyor failing to respond to party wall issues.
There is much more for Grant Shapps to sort out. I tend to think that without a two tier planning consent, one for developers and another for self-builders, the price of land will be out of reach of most self-builders.
Sorry about long rant . . . what do you think?
Good ole dip s**t Shapps climbing on to some other band waggon. Probably beginning to realise that all he has done so far equates to diddly squat.
Gives us something to laugh about though in these interesting times though!
Another great idea by the Government, only to be destroyed by the Councils planners who go out of their way to refuse applications.
The majority of these so called "planners" haven't got a clue about development and what is needed.
We have a housing shortage and therefore need to build and if people are willing to spend hundreds of thousands to build their own home they should be allowed.
The local Council planning departments should be replaced with a central government planning office that gives consent according to the Planning Policies and not local council politics.
This is being said at the same time as the Localism Act and the NPPF gives local councils the power to control how many "windfall" sites are allowed in their area. If they can demonstrate they have a Core Strategy and an achievable five-year housing supply, there is nothing to stop a council banning small sites entirely, thereby pandering to the anti- "garden grabbing" brigade and maximising the supply of affordable homes and S106 or CIL tax.
These small sites are exactly the kind brought forward for development by self-builders, owners of pockets of land and by small developers, so there is a serious danger of supply being killed off by councils doing advance deals with large landowners and the national housebuilders and then banning all other development.
That'll work.
I'll just get my trowel.
I made mine from straw.
Kevin McCloud said I should have used rammed earth.
Pillock.