13 January 2014
The Shadow Housing Minister, Emma Reynolds has committed a future Labour Government to provide more small plots aimed at self and custom builders. The initiative – called Build First – will involve local councils being required to reserve plots for individual self builders in their Local Plans. Councils will also have to provide sites suitable for custom build developers.
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Speaking at National House-Building Council (NHBC) today she said: “In many other countries the housing market is made up of a much more diverse number of builders, including self and custom builders. In Canada, France, Germany and the US, self or custom build delivers in excess of 40% of the housing output – in others such as Austria it is up to 80% of homes”.
The Shadow Minister highlighted a new initiative in Lewisham, where the local Labour council is organsing a custom build scheme that allows the residents to choose the design and specify individual requirements. She also identified a project in Oldham, where the council has bought and cleared the land for a custom build scheme that will deliver homes at 20% less than market value.
“We know that one of the key barriers for small and custom builders is access to land,” she told the NHBC.
“So I can announce today that the next Labour Government will require local authorities to include a higher proportion of small sites in their five year land supply. Second, we will give guaranteed access to public land to smaller firms and custom builders. And we will ensure that any public land given over for housebuilding will have a proportion dedicated for this purpose”.
The Labour Minister said that where public land is going to be used for self or custom build, she will encourage the use of the ‘Build Now, Pay Later’ scheme. And she promised to work with mortgage lenders to create standardised self and custom build mortgages.
Reynolds criticised the current Government for talking vaguely about registers for people interested in building their own home.
“The next Labour Government will ask every local authority in the country to create a new waiting list for those that want to register their interest in a custom-build, co-operative build or community land trust plot. Local people will have priority so they can live affordably within their community,” she said.
Reynolds also confirmed Labour’s plans to build a new generation of Garden Cities, and she said that a proportion of the homes built in these new settlements would be set aside for smaller firms and self builders.
