Capacity in the Homebuilding Industry: How the UK is falling short with self-building
15 May 2017
The Communities and Local Government Committee has released a new document as part of its on-going investigation, Capacity in the Homebuilding Industry. The latest statement is the 10th in a long line, focused on repairing what government calls the “broken housing market”.
The committee, made up of 14 regional MP’s, was appointed by the House of Commons following a preliminary board publishing a report on financing housing initiatives in 2012, which highlighted the importance of the self-build route.
The latest statement explains: “We believe that custom and self-build homes have the potential to make a far greater contribution to housing output than at present, and are disappointed that despite apparent Government support there does not appear to have been any growth in this area in recent years.”
In part 10 of Capacity in the Homebuilding Industry, the MP’s address how the UK is falling short with self-building, using National Custom and Self Build Association (NaCSBA) statistics to support its findings. The data reveals that 53% of UK residents want to build their own home. Around 12% of this group wish to do so through a volume homebuilder, 10% want a ‘Grand Designs’ style home, and the needs of the remaining 78% are currently not catered for. Finally, of the seven million people wishing to build within the next 12 months, only 10,000 will succeed.
The obstacles facing the self-build industry, the report suggests, include securing land, a lack of finance options and the “growing skills crisis”. To tackle the latter, the committee is calling for government to invest in new education for would-be labourers.
The board uses Almere in The Netherlands (pictured below) as a positive example of how the UK can increase its homebuilding output. Almere was designed to address the housing shortage in and around Amsterdam and currently has around 200,000 residents. This latest report calls on government and local authorities to take a “more proactive role to support custom and self-build” nationally.
