2 May 2014
Preparations for the 2014 National Custom & Self Build Week are now almost complete, and the celebration is all set to be formally launched tomorrow at Grand Designs Live.
During the week there will be events happening all over the the country, though the main focus will be in London where a string of important debates have been lined up at ExCeL, alongside the Grand Designs exhibition.
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The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles (pictured above, middle top), will officially fire the starting gun at 1pm on Saturday 3 May. Mr Pickles recently said that although Britain was often described as a nation of shopkeepers, he wanted it to become known as a nation of self builders. He’s also a keen supporter of the plan to exempt self and custom builders from having to pay affordable housing contributions when they apply for planning permission.
On Tuesday another senior Government representative – Planning Minister Nick Boles (pictured above, middle bottom) – takes the stage at Grand Designs in a major debate about what can be done to simplify the planning process for self builders.
And on Wednesday, Kristien Ring (pictured above right), the author of a new book that describes how more than 300 ‘building groups’ in Berlin have built their homes will be flying in as part of a debate on how people deliver their own homes in other countries. Kristien will also be one of the main speakers at an event on community-led self build schemes that will be staged on Saturday 10 May in Canning Town. Full details of all the events taking place can be found on the National Custom & Self Build Week 2014 webpage.
This year the Week has kindly been supported by British Gas. As part of this sponsorship arrangement they will also be supporting the 2014 Self Build on a Shoestring Ideas Competition. This year the £5000 prize is aimed at unearthing innovative ideas for a development of 20 low cost, easy-to-build homes in a City location. Full details of the brief for the competition will be available on the Self Build on a Shoestring webpage.
“This year we have slightly adjusted the name and theme of the week as we are keen to cast the spotlight on the growing custom build sector”, explained National Self Build Association Chair Ted Stevens. “There are now around 20 custom build developers or enablers in the UK and many potential self builders are finding that they are attracted to this way of getting a home built for themselves.”
You can access a comprehensive list of custom build developers via our Suppliers Directory.
