Andrew Baddeley-Chappell, NaCSBA CEO’s speech to the House of Commons for National Custom and Self Build Week 2019

NaCSBA CEO at the House of CommonsThe aim of today is to celebrate the continued growth and momentum of Custom and Self Build. This is important not just for us but for the country as a whole. NaCSBA believes that custom and self build delivers more and better homes that more people aspire to live in and that communities are happier to see built.

This is an important time for the sector:

  • Grand Designs: The Street is highlighting to millions that Custom and Self Build is a mainstream option for mainstream homebuyers on mainstream sites.
  • The Letwin review enforced the need to open up our larger sites to custom and self build.
  • The Right to Build Legislation first bites on 30 October 2019, and,
  • We have in place a Housing Minister whose mantra of more, better, faster has been associated with an energy and ambition that has uplifted us all.

As the Minister has stated, housing is our most important domestic issue and despite all the other political distractions, we must not allow this window of high employment and low-cost of finance to pass us by without delivering a step change in the number of Custom and Self Build homes that we build here in the UK.

It is worth restating that the UK is an outlier amongst developed countries as to the low level of new homes that are built via Custom and Self Build. In other countries, Grand Designs would be very different great examples of new build can be readily found in the streets and settlements in which they live.

I strongly believe that were we like almost every other developed country our housing supply would not be in the mess that it is now in. The UK pubic has become so conditioned to believing that this is the norm that many will not look at a new home. Most assume that to get the house they want they must buy an old house and knock large parts of it down. Change is needed.

Action is happening across the UK. The Welsh Government is launching a self-build fund providing low deposit development loans and Welsh local authorities, are selling fixed price serviced plots.

Here in England we are anticipating Right to Build Day on 30 October 2019. This is the date when the first 18,000 plots must be permissioned across 336 planning authorities in England. Our recent research however has made it clear that this target is unlikely to be met. Furthermore, a range of poor practice has been identified across a minority of local authorities that NaCSBA strongly believes to be contrary to both the spirit and the letter of the law.

Amongst the poor practice are:

  • High chargesWest Lancashire charges £480 over 4 years and has no-one on its register
  • Unnecessary local connection tests – these are now operated in nearly a quarter of authorities many under the false argument of prioritising locals (yet this approach does not follow through into developments by large housebuilders).
  • Some authorities count all developments under 10 homes as being suitable for self-build even though (as they are fully aware) very few plots have been used in this way, such as Warwick.
  • Lack of promotion, for example, Cotswold Council told us that their promotion of the registers consisted of writing to all on the register advising them that they were now introducing a fee.

Despite these negatives, good practice is slowly emerging. This is helped by the Right to Build Task Force who have worked with over 50 organisations including nearly 10% of all local authorities and estimate that to date their work should support 6-10,000 more custom and self build homes.

More land is being set aside on larger sites and greater emphasis is being given to the right to build in the balancing of the various needs of the planning process for smaller sites. New towns and villages are particular opportunities to create quality settlements and to help to build a community.

Central Government is acting, but more work is needed. As the Housing White Paper states: “If we do not believe that local authorities are taking sufficient action to promote opportunities for custom-building and self-building, we will consider taking further action including possible changes to legislation.”

NaCSBA is willing to work with Government to help them determine what the next steps could and should be.

It is also 5 years since a Conservative Housing Minister stood up in the House of Commons and declared that. “It is important that we provide support to the sector through Help to Buy.” It is over 12 months since NaCSBA presented a workable solution supported by a number of mortgage lenders.

The absence of equivalent support for customers who would like to choose to Custom and Self Build is unfair and anti-competitive.

It is hard to overstate the benefits as to:

  • how we live our lives
  • how we work creatively
  • how we interact with our families and our communities
    And that can come from a quality new, self-built home. These can only be achieved on scale here in the UK when custom and self build becomes a mainstream choice for all those seeking a home of their own.

Thank you again for all your support.

Read more about the speakers at the House of Commons Reception, including Paul Ellis of Ecology, Richard Bacon MP, Kevin McCloud and Housing Minisiter Kit Malthouse, here.