The government wants to tap in to our national obsession with Grand Designs with a strategy to promote self-build. But can daydreams formed in front of our TV sets really come true?
Katie Puckett reports. Illustrations by Andy Smith
Admit it: you would secretly love to build your own home. But even though many people will have probably considered it at some time or another, very few of us will ever take the plunge. This is the Grand Designs paradox: the ubiquity of property programmes on TV encourages us all to dream of designing the perfect home, while simultaneously presenting a hellish vision of construction nightmares and financial ruin that ensures only the bravest will ever attempt it.
But that could all change if housing minister Grant Shapps achieves his ambition to make self-build a more realistic option. Shapps and planning minister Andrew Stunnell recently set up a working group on self-build experts that is due to report to the Department for Communities and Local Government this summer with an action plan covering four areas: the availability of land; red tape and planning permission; finance and mortgages; and advice and support.
The ministers are acting on significant anecdotal evidence that many more people would like to self-build than are currently able to. And its appeal to the CLG is as obvious as it is to most armchair builders: self-build could contribute to much-needed new housing starts; empower individuals and communities in true Localist and Big Society fashion; revitalise rural locations and regenerate urban ones. In addition, self-builders are likely to be at the forefront of building sustainable homes.
What is to be done?
But what’s less clear is what the government can actually do, particularly in the context of other policy aims. At the moment, it is handing the levers of control on planning over to local communities; cutting funds to the Homes and Communities Agency, and seems unable to persuade mortgage lenders to make more funds available for new borrowers.
Self-build projects can take several forms, from the amateur enthusiast who carries out most of the building work themselves, to community groups developing a number of homes to own or rent, perhaps under the auspices of a housing association. In countries such as Germany and Sweden, self-builders are responsible for as many as 60% of all new homes (typically, buyers find a plot, then commission a specialist self-build company to build either a bespoke or a “catalogue” home). But in the UK, it remains the chosen option of a small minority, albeit a consistent one.
According to estimates from campaign group the National Self Build Association (NaSBA), self-builders completed 16,000-18,000 homes a year during the boom years of 2005-2007, about 10-12% of the total, which puts this fragmented sector on a par with the UK’s largest housebuilders. But the self-build sector also seems to be more resilient to economic ups and downs than the mainstream. Since 2008, completed self-build projects have still accounted for 13,000-15,000 homes a year, about a third of new detached homes.
Financing a project is the first barrier facing self-builders. NaSBA says two-thirds rely on mortgage finance, usually released in stages throughout the build. There were 36 lenders offering specialist self-build mortgages before the credit crunch, now there are just 15. There are signs that lenders are returning to the market, but loan-to-value ratios are lower, down from 95% to a maximum of 85%.
Self-builders will also need to be sure their cash reserves are sufficient, according to Jaclyn Thorburn, communications manager at BuildStore, which offers products and services to self-builders and is a founder member of NaSBA. “We used to advise people to have at least 10-15% contingency, now we say more like 20%. Before the credit crunch, you could go back to the lender for a further advance, now you can’t.” If the government wants to see more self-building, then it seems essential to make sure the finance tap runs more freely.
The other major stumbling block for self-builders in the UK is finding land, and the reluctance of local authorities to set aside land for this purpose. BuildStore has more than 80,000 people registered on its PlotSearch database, but only 7,774 sites available. Thorburn says the number of completed homes could be doubled from current totals if more land was available. “People can spend years searching for a plot. Councils think big housing developers will give them more money for sites, but that’s not necessarily the case if they divide them into plots,” she argues.
BuildStore has been talking to its local authority, Swindon Borough Council, since 2008 about setting aside a site for self-builders there. BuildStore would act as a broker, sub-dividing the site, supplying services and infrastructure, and setting a unifying design code. But one site identified as a candidate was subsequently put aside for non-residential use, since when the project has been stuck on the desks of council staff. However, BuildStore is hopeful that a second site might be adopted.
Self-build, self-help
Rather than individual households building one-off homes, perhaps the biggest opportunity lies in community projects. Helen Town is strategic housing officer at Cherwell District Council in Oxfordshire, and a member of the CLG’s self-build working group. She has been looking into self-build as a way not only of reducing high levels of youth homelessness in the area, but of providing opportunities for young people not in education, employment or training.
Town carried out an informal survey of the 4,000 people on Cherwell’s housing register, receiving responses from about 10% — almost all saying they would like the opportunity to self-build. “We want to create a level playing field for people who have got no money, no help from their parents, or who are in serious debt, but there is always a barrier around funding for social housing,” she says.
Another body represented on the CLG working group is the Community Self Build Agency, which works with local authorities on projects for people in housing need. “Projects are often led by housing associations, whether for shared ownership or for rent, but there’s always a requirement for social housing grant,” says John Gillespie, national development director and working group participant.
As well as grant shortfall, Gillespie says community projects also face the problem of securing local authority support. On one project in Cornwall, it “took three or four years to get the local authority on side, but it’s not unusual for some community groups to be waiting six years”.
In a report published in October 2008, NaSBA recommended that every UK local authority should zone sites for at least 30 self-builders a year, and that the proposed eco towns should be required to provide sites for at least 500 eco-self-builders. But Town believes that sets the target too high. “Every area has different needs, and there are always competing pressures for the land. On large schemes, the inclusion of self-building is a good opportunity, but the whole scheme’s viability needs to be thought through.”
In any case, a top-down approach on planning policy doesn’t fit with the current government’s policy agenda. Instead, the key reform that Grant Shapps hopes will encourage self-build is the Community Right to Build, proposed in the Localism Bill. Under this change to
the planning system, community organisations would be able to build with “minimal red tape” if there was 75% local support for a project.
The Homes and Communities Agency’s investment framework for 2011-2015 also reserves funding for homes delivered via the Community Right to Build, and local councils will also pick up the “new homes bonus” for self-build homes.
But it’s open to question whether the Community Right to Build will facilitate more self-build, or if the 75% rule will instead empower the NIMBY brigade. “I think it’s going to be more of an obstacle,” says Phil Moss MCIOB, who runs Bloomsbury, a project management company specialising in the self-build sector (see box, right). “When you get groups of people together who have been living there for 20 years, they are extremely reluctant to allow further development. They’re not all going to say ‘we want 10 people to build homes down our street’.”
Meanwhile, Thorburn believes that more direct government intervention is needed to make the planning system more self-build friendly. “There are no shortcuts for one-off homes. Self-builders have to go through the same planning process as someone building a development of 400 homes. Planning should be relative to the size of development,” she says.
As for Building Regulations, Thorburn suggests that the rules could be more accessible to the layperson. “It’s a very complex system and it changes all the time. Understanding the Code for Sustainable Homes is not as simple as totting up some sums, it’s a whole-house approach. Self-builders could do with more support to understand them.”
However, professionals are alarmed at any suggestion that planning regulations and Building Control could be relaxed for self-build projects. “Self-building is a great idea, but it needs some kind of policing,” says Mike Smith MCIOB, managing director of Corniche Builders in Sutton. “Half the battle is that everybody now thinks they’re a builder, but building is becoming a lot more technical. Building Control needs to be sure that the people carrying out the work understand Building Regulations. These projects can carry on for five years, and there are changes to the regulations twice a year now.”
Contractor opportunities
NaSBA’s 2008 report estimates that between half and two thirds of self-builders carry out all project management, secure planning and regulatory approvals and hire their own subcontractors, carrying out significant amounts of the building work themselves. Between a quarter and a third use a main contractor. But if self-build did take hold, it opens up the possibility of a wider market for small contractors and consultancies.
Bloomsbury’s Phil Moss sees a market opportunity if people are encouraged to use the professional help available. “The public needs to be educated that self-build need not be the awful experience it generally is. On Grand Designs, a couple buys a plot and expect the project to take a year and cost £500,000, when you know it’s going to take twice as long and cost £750,000. If they had a project manager, they could have saved that money and a year on the build.”
But others have looked to a different, larger-scale approach. “Enabled self-build”, coined by architect Michael Kohn of Slider Studio, casts people not as builders, but clients-cum-developers. It envisages local authorities sub-dividing a piece of land, granting planning permission and getting local companies to build homes on behalf of the residents. Kohn argues that self-build needs to operate on a larger, managed scale. “Grand Designs is unaffordable and unrealistic,” he says. “I’m interested in the government investing in a framework and platform that helps local people develop the houses they want in the local area, using the local supply chain.”
The idea sounds plausible, but no one doubts that implementing this model — or any other ideas the CLG working group might come up with — will be tough. At planning consultancy C20 Futureplanners, CLG working group member Stephen Hill has identified a “cultural resistance” to self-build in the UK. “We don’t believe that people are sufficiently responsible to choose their own housing, and issues such as access to land and finance are conditioned by this. It’s not seen as a normal activity.”
So Hill believes the best the CLG can do is help influence peoples’ attitudes. “Ministers can change the terms of debate,” he says. “Every time they visit a local authority or housing association, they should ask ‘have you done one of these schemes?’. If they ask enough, the organisations that are the gatekeepers of access to land and finance will be put under pressure to make it a normal activity.” Aspiring self-builders will hope he is right.
John Butterfield
‘More people should do it’
John Butterfield is a project manager with Shepherd Construction. In 2005 he self-built his own house in County Durham, and is now planning to develop a site for two or more houses with a business partner.
Do you think self-build should be more accessible to more people?
I think it’s fantastic news that the government wants to extend self-build, and more people should do it. It’s a great achievement when you’re able to build your own house and live in it.
What could the government do to facilitate more self-build?
When the coalition came into government, they changed the rules so that you couldn’t build on garden land anymore — it used to be classed as brownfield and now it’s greenfield. That’s one of the problems, it’s restricting the supply of sites.
What could local authorities do?
Trying to get planning permission is really difficult. The councils have got all these “guidelines”, but they don’t seem to be very flexible about them so I don’t know why they call them “guidelines”. We’ve had to hire a planning consultant, but even then we’ve been refused permission three times. It’s costing us a fortune as we’re also paying for the architects to change the plans each time. But we’ve now had a meeting with the head of planning to agree the scheme in principle, and we’ll submit what she recommended.
Should there be simplified Building Regulations for self-builders?
No, I think that should remain the same for self-build as anyone else — after all you’re building habitable space and every home should be built to the same standards.
Do you think self-build projects tend to be “greener” than developer-built homes?
Not necessarily. Technologies like ground source heat pumps cost a fortune to install, so you’re not going to go down that route. I enquired about grants for heat pumps and solar cells, but there was nothing available. If the pay back takes 20 years, you might as well just put in a gas boiler.
Butterfield’s home: a great achievement
Phil Moss MCIOB
‘It’s a rewarding process’
Phil Moss MCIOB set up a Southampton-based project management business in 2008, after 40 years in the construction industry working for main contractors. Around 80% of his work is on self-build projects.
Do you think self-build should be more accessible to more people?
Absolutely. It’s a tremendously satisfying and rewarding process for those who’ve got the money and the gumption.
What should the government do to facilitate self-build projects?
That’s a tricky one. But I think planning law should be more transparent and easily accessible. At the moment, you don’t know where you can build and what until you’ve spent a fortune on planning consultants to explain the rules in your area on green spaces or brownfield sites. Then there are the stupid anomalies like the VAT rules. What is the point of self-builders not being able to claim back VAT after three months?
What should local authorities do?
Get planning committees to sit every week instead of every month. That would cost next to nothing and speed the planning process up. When a planning application goes in, why should it be more than three weeks before it goes to committee?
What about the CIOB or wider industry?
We could make a bigger effort to educate people on self-building projects, and the efficacy of using a project manager. Kevin McCloud is the only person I know who is promoting the idea. You read articles [in self-build magazines] from experienced people who say things like “project managers charge you 10-15%, is it worth it?” But I don’t know any project manager who charges that. And if I couldn’t save you 20% on the build and do it in half the time, I wouldn’t try to get the job.
Would you build your own home?
I’m looking for land at the moment. I’d like something that was tailored to my needs and I’m very interested in energy-saving, particularly things like solar gain and insulation. It’s a once-only cost and you save money forever.
So what would get you started?
More availability of land, without a doubt.
A £1.3m house project-managed by Moss
