Government pledges commitment to helping people build their own home
custom and self build homes were completed in 2015 – a year on year growth of six per cent. This has demonstrated a reversal of the post credit crunch decline and will help support the government’s target of creating 20,000 custom and self-build homes by 2020. Housing Minister Brandon Lewis
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explained: “We are committed to helping people build their own home and have ensured councils now have to keep a register of aspiring self and custom house builders when planning for future housing and land use. “More than 10,000 people build their
own home each year – and the new registers are another step in helping to double the number of custom and self build homes each year. “We are determined to increasing hous-
ing supply and helping more people achieve their aspiration of home ownership – whether that’s buying on the open market through schemes like Help to Buy, or by building or commissioning their own home.” Richard Bacon MP also discussed the launch of Custom & Self Build Demand
t was announced at the National Custom and Self Build Association (NaCSBA) 2016 Right to Build Summit that 12,500
Registers, which from the 1 April were required in England by law under the Self Build & Custom Homebuilding Act. Talking at the event, NaCSBA Chairman
Michael Holmes launched the findings of the association’s latest survey into custom and self-building conducted in conjunction with the Ipswich Building Society. The survey revealed that 9.7 million people want to see a larger proportion of new homes being built via custom or self-build routes, which would in turn increase public support for building more new homes. However, in terms of knowledge the survey revealed that only 1 in 10 are aware of the introduction of Right to Build Registers in England. Michael Holmes said: “The success of the
Right to Build Policy initiative and the deliv- ery of land to meet the huge pent up demand depends on the registers. That is why NaCSBA is today launching a new website
RightToBuildPortal.org, which promotes compliant NaCSBA-approved demand registers. Currently only 35 per cent of local authorities have adopted a register and we will be working hard to get this to 100 per cent, in addition ensuring Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland adopt the right too.” To encourage the adoption of registers the
Brandon Lewis speaking at the summit
NaCSBA announced its intention to form a Task Force to work with local authorities to implement the Right to Build. However, in the initial consultation stages while funding is secured, the Task Force will be instrumental in the success of boosting the custom build sector in the UK. The work of the new Task Force will be to
build on the work of the Custom & Self Build Toolkit, which was funded by The Nationwide Foundation. The comprehensive online toolkit provides detailed technical advice on how local authorities can better support communities that want to build their own homes. The toolkit now includes a live discussion forum for local authority practition- ers and community groups that are engaged in planning for custom and self build housing to share experience and information.
s106 planning obligations
High Court decision reversal keeps exemption from s106 planning obligation payments for small sites
tion from s106 planning obligation payments for small sites. The exemption was originally introduced
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by Minister for Housing and Planning, Brandon Lewis MP, by Ministerial Statement in 2014. It freed self-builders from the s106 planning obligation payments which obliged them to divert considerable funds from their build budgets into contributions for afford- able housing and other local authority infra- structure projects. The National Custom and Self Build
Association (NaCSBA) has campaigned for the exemption on the grounds that the pay- ments, which were designed to mitigate the impact of major development on local infra- structure, were disproportionate to the impact of small developments and in particular single custom or self-build homes. Talking about the Court of Appeal decision
recent Court of Appeal Civil Division hearing has reversed last year’s High Court decision to remove the exemp-
NaCSBA chairman Michael Holmes said: “NaCSBA welcomes the Court of Appeal rul- ing. This exemption, together with the existing exemption from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), brings us one step closer to NaCBSA’s stated aim to make a high quality, sustainable, affordable individual home an option for the many and not just the few.” The original exemption, applied to sites in
England of 10 new homes or less, but some local authorities disagreed with the exemp- tion. In July 2015 the judge in a High Court case brought by two neighbouring authorities, Reading and West Berkshire, found the exemption unlawful. The High Court Judge’s ruling went against
the intentions of the Government to accelerate national development numbers, support smaller homebuilders and the custom/self- build sector. In support of the growing num- bers of potential custom and self-builders the NaCSBA launched a campaign for the rein- troduction of the exemption and in August
2015, DCLG was granted leave to appeal. The High Court’s decision to quash the exemption has been reversed with immediate effect and the Government is expected to update its guidance accordingly.
selfbuilder & homemaker
www.sbhonline.co.uk
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right to build summit
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