21 October 2014
Proposals to deliver at least 15,000 custom build and/or self build homes a year by the end of the decade have been set out in a new report.
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The Lyons Housing Review, an independent review of housing prepared by Sir Michael Lyons for the Labour Party, points to the problem of the biggest housing crisis in a generation and highlights a 55% shortfall in homebuilding in 2013 failing to meet demand. To tackle the issue it sets out a roadmap to increase the building of new homes to an overall total of at least 200,000 by 2020.
The document suggests that the custom/self build market is beginning to display signs of future potential, calling the new development at Trevenson Park in Cornwall “a step in the right direction”, but argues that such schemes are small in comparison with member-run ‘building groups’ in the city of Berlin and the impressive Almere project in the Netherlands.
Highlighting land acquisition as the biggest obstacle the paper also indicates that, according to the National Custom & Self Build Association, 48% of self/custom builders have a budget of £200,000 or less; finance that struggles to meet construction costs and the purchase of land in high housing demand areas such as London and the South East.
Expanding further on the problem of gaining significant access to affordable land, the report promotes good examples of where local authorities are working to alleviate the problem; Cherwell District Council, in particular, with its proposed Graven Hill development, on public land, boasting up to 1,900 self build homes.
Lyons’ publication concludes that there is scope for self and custom building to increase its prevalence in the UK to reach continental levels and suggests potential for a further 10,000 or 20,000 units each year – estimates which it says “do not seem implausible”. The precursors are that any land provision must be made affordable and must grant the broad outline permissions seen in the Dutch and German models.
