Grant Shapps calls for more self built homes
Housing minister Grant Shapps has said he wants to make self building a mainstream housing option and has set up a working group to see how this can be done.
Shapps is hoping to make it easier for people to raise finance to build their own homes and wants more land made available for self builders.
“Building your own house should be a common way for people to have a home,” he said. “Too many people end up living in identikit boxes that wouldn’t look out of place in Legoland. Why shouldn’t more people be able to build their own dream?
“I am keen to promote the plot concept of self build where serviced plots of land and development finance is available to people who wish to self build. Individuals could then engage an architect or commission a builder to manage the build of their own home.”
Shapps said the government would be releasing a tranche of land in the next few months that will be earmarked for self builders only.
“If done right, self build can enhance the quality of design and encourage more sustainable buildings,” he said.
Shapps promised community self build projects would become easier through the Community Right to Build measure, which is being introduced in the upcoming Localism Bill. The minister said the proposals should become law by the end of the year.
Around 20% of the country’s new homes are self build, which Shapps said compared unfavourably with other European countries such as Germany where just over half of all new homes are self built.
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Readers' comments (5)
Schapps has rather brilliantly made his 'announcement' this week without announcing anything new. His support for self-build was expressed several months ago. I wrote about it at Ruralise back in January: http://bit.ly/m3gztM. As far as I know we still await details of actual sites to be nominated as self-build sites under the CLG's 'Buy Now, Pay Later' initiative. The scheme, aimed at easing private developers' cash-flow has already been applied to six sites, but these are all house-builder-led schemes of 300+ houses. It will be interesting to see how the idea could be reduced in scale to be accessible for self-builders.
presumably this only makes sense outside of london, where land can actually be bought without needing to rob a bank
"Around 20% of the country’s new homes are self build"
Really !!!! Are you sure that's not 2% !!!!
Please provide substantiation of that 20% figure.
I conclude no one can give the substantiation requested...
Some very unscientific googling revealed that the Rowntree foundation estimated there were 15,000 self build projects in 1999 (a little out-of-date), a rise from 2000 in 1978. Assuming that increase continued to 2011 that gives around 23,500 self builds this year.
Total number of new built houses in 2010 was 102,570 according to DCLG.
Around 20%! More indicative of the general record of housebuilding than a massive increase in people building their own homes I think.