BADSBA’s essential guide to Self Building as a group

Build a Dream Self Build Association (BADSBA) Founder and chair Valerie Bearne has created an essential guide to helping people build collectively, Get Together and Build Yourself a House. As well as the founder of BADSBA, Bearne is a founding member of NaCSBA, and has a wealth of experience of working with groups, which she shares in this publication.

Never before has there been such a groundswell of support for community-led housing, whether it be new projects or regeneration opportunities, and this publication is a welcome guide to supporting group Self and Custom Builds.

Group builds are also starting to become the dominant route into an urban approach to self-building, offering independent groups, as well as cohousing and Community Land Trusts to create the homes they want, in their preferred neighbourhood.

Social equity abounds in these groups – they empower local people, build homes that are typically of a higher quality than similar spec-built properties and with more sustainability factored in. They also forge strong community ties, as people share the common experience of creating their homes, prior to living in them.

It’s also a great solution for people that share similar values or needs, whether it’s downsizing later lifers or ethnic-, gender- or orientation-based groups. When affordability is factored in this offers a powerful dynamic.

Practicalities of building

Get Together and Build Yourself a House is a must for any Self Build group or Self Builder interested in starting or joining a group project of any sort, as it’s packed with practical advice on how to get started.

The publication explains the practicalities of working in a group, and the mechanisms and considerations involved in working collaboratively, as well as the benefits of the route.

Usefully, it also explains the outcomes for local authorities, housing association, communities and more, ensuring that your group is progressing with the wider benefits clearly mapped out.

It’s also offers supporting notes for planning, finance and funding and a range of vital skills that will help any group move their project from dream to reality.

For any local authority, landowner or enabler this is a useful – and very affordable – guide to recommend to fledgling groups, as it clearly sets out these considerations. Many of issues are hard to foresee by members of the public, and this guide helps make the challenge of building in a group seems so much more tangible.

Without doubt it will be the best £5.95 any group will spend!