Up to 10,000 additional building plots to be funded
19 March 2014
A package of radical measures in today’s Budget should give the self and custom build sector the biggest boost it’s ever received.
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Although George Osborne only made a brief mention of the sector in his formal speech, fuller details are now available from the Treasury and the Portal can reveal that:
- £150m of funding will be made available to help deliver up to 10,000 serviced building plots
- People will have a new ‘Right to Build’ – whereby they can formally challenge local authorities that do not provide opportunities or land for self and custom builders
- As part of the extra £6bn the Government is providing to extend the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme, it is keen to find a way to help self builders qualify for a 20% equity loan too.
Welcoming the package, Ted Stevens, Chair of the National Self Build Association (NaSBA) said: “This is the biggest demonstration of Government support the industry had ever had. It could effectively double the sector’s output in a very short period of time, and I’m confident it will lead to a massive increase in people looking to build their own homes”.
Full details of how the Right to Build idea will work have not yet been decided and the Government will hold a consultation exercise on this in the summer. If legislation is required to introduce the new measures it could take until 2015 to get this set up; but if it is just a case of adjusting Government policy the new powers could be introduced later this year.
The Government will also be recruiting a number of ‘vanguard’ councils to pilot the new idea, and it will provide these with some financial support to test the concept.
The £150m that is being made available is a bit like an extension of the current Custom Build Investment Fund. This £30m pot of money was due to run out in 2015. The new fund will be focused solely on the provision of serviced building plots as this is where the Government believes there is the acute immediate demand from would-be self builders. It comes in the form of a loan – so people can borrow money to buy land, split it into serviced plots, then replay the loan once the plots have been sold.
“There are seven million people currently researching how to build their own homes, so these measures as a whole, and especially the additional building plots will help a lot more of them turn their dreams into a reality”, said Stevens
The Chancellor’s announcement on Sunday about the new 15,000 home garden city at Ebbsfleet will also lead to a number of self build opportunities as we understand the Government will require the new Development Corporation that it will be creating to include significant provision for people who want to build their own homes.
