With the TV programme Grand Designs now in its 13th
Year it’s no surprise to learn that over 14,000
people a year are opting to build their own home,
Yet our self-build industry still lags behind much
of the rest of the world, with the opportunity to
build your own home seen as something only for a select
wealthy few.
Last
year some of the country’s largest builders
could not erect houses on the same scale as self-builders,
Barratt could only manage 11,171 homes, whilst Taylor
Wimpey only built 10,180.
With
these figures giving an impressive total of 35,351
homes built in the last year, you’d be forgiven
for wondering why we have a housing crisis at all,
However Housing minister Grant Shapps feels there
is still a need to raise this figure and help more
people become self-builders.
A
package of measures was launched at 10 Downing Street
and Mr Shapps was joined by seasoned self-build expert
and presenter of Grand Designs Kevin McCloud. It is
hoped these new measures would, for the first time,
enable anyone wanting to don a hard hat and build
their own home to get the help, advice and support
they need to get started, with an estimated budget
of £150,000 being enough to self-build a three
to four-bedroom home
As
well as a new website giving help and advice, Mr Shapps
claims to be working hard to identify more land for
development and to reformed the planning rules to
stop people’s aspirations getting tangled in
red tape and helping the self-build industry to double
in size over the next few years.
