19 July 2013
There is now wide cross-party support for initiatives to help grow the self and custom build sectors, with a new All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in the process of being formed, and some very positive comments and support coming from all the three main parties.
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For example, Leeds MP Hilary Benn (pictured first), Labour’s Shadow Secretary for the Department for Communities and Local Government, recently addressed the Local Government’s Association’s annual conference, and suggested that councils should draw up a waiting list for local people who are keen to build on any surplus land or building plots that councils might have.
He said: “We should be helping people who would like to build their own home – self build – or develop co-operative housing to get access to land. What about a register so that when building plots become available – including on public land – they have a chance to get one?”
There is also understood to be strong support within the Liberal party, with the Deputy Prime Minister being one of the main champions of self build. The Liberal MP for Bath, Don Foster, is another advocate of growing the self build sector. He is currently parliamentary under secretary of state for Communities and Local Government, where he has responsibility for certain housing issues, and for encouraging community development and neighbourhood planning initiatives.
Other Labour politicians with a strong interest in self/custom build include Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts (pictured second), who chairs the Communities and Local Government Select Committee. Last year, following a trip he’d made to Almere in The Netherlands with other MPs he said: “Self build schemes could be a major new source of housing in England. Government, local authorities and lenders must work together to remove the barriers that currently restrict self-build and commit to getting pilot schemes underway very quickly.”
Scottish Nationalist politician and Moray MP Angus Robertson is also understood to be interested in boosting the level of self build housing in Scotland. And Brighton’s Green MP Caroline Lucas (pictured third) is believed to be sympathetic as Brighton and Hove council has recently unveiled proposals to support housing co-ops and encourage more self build housing.
Details of the membership of the new APPG on self build are expected to be unveiled in the autumn. Norfolk South Conservative MP Richard Bacon (pictured fourth) has assembled a list of 20 MPs – from across the political spectrum – and the Group is likely to have its inaugural meeting in September.
