FOCUS ON
Insights into community-led housing from the Right to Build Expo, London.
The Right to Build Expo London: Unlocking the Potential of Custom & Self Build Housing took place on 10 May at Grand Designs Live in London’s Excel, sharing insights into the current situation in the capital with regards to the Custom and Self Build sector.
With a host of presentations and projects sharing their experiences, the day offered an invaluable snapshot of some of the most interesting community-led projects in London.
The Right to Build: The London Picture
The Greater London Authority is supportive of Custom, Self Build and community-led housing – it hosts its own pilot small-sites register,
Of the 33,000 signed up to the Right to Build registers in England, 5,000 are across the London Boroughs*,
12 out of 15 boroughs responded to the Freedom of Information Request,
45% of London boroughs are taking action to meet demand on their registers,
The most active boroughs tend to be the more central ones,
850 self-build houses were completed in London last year**
1,500 planning permissions were submitted for individual new dwellings last year**
Supply of building land includes garden plots, infill, windfall sites, regeneration and building conversions
*Figures from 31/10/17
**based on 2016 returns
In his welcome address, NaCSBA Chair Michael Holmes stressed the fact that the Right to Build Task Force supports a range of stakeholders, but in particular councils, as they work to fulfil their Right to Build duties.
“Facilitate is the key word here,” said Holmes, “as the Right to Build legislation doesn’t require councils to buy or own land. There are lots of ways of bringing forward Custom and Self Build homes that don’t require local authorities to own land or be the developer.
For NaCSBA and the Right to Build Task Force, the challenge is to scale up Custom Build and Self Build, and community-led design is key tool in this in cities.
The London Expo shared examples that demonstrate that cities and densely-packed, expensive urban markets can produce custom build through a number of different ways: as part of affordable housing projects, as part of the renovation and conversion of existing buildings or through wider regeneration schemes.
NaCSBA believes that most London Boroughs can fulfil their duties under the Right to Build, but this won’t be through large plots, but rather a mix of smaller garden and infill plots and windfall sites, as well as larger refurbishment and regeneration opportunities.
In fact, dispelling the myth that Custom and Self Build is reliant on large, low-density detached plots was a key theme of the day.
Building land is a crucial resource, and high-density building is key in an urban environment with limited access to land. It also holds the key to bringing costs down and scaling up the market. And this is where cities are innovating with interesting approaches, from cohousing models to estate regeneration.
Urban examples of Custom Build
Projects on the day looked at custom building through a range of models that focused on high-density solutions. And at the heart of all of these was community, that is the people who would be, or already are, the residents.
As Right to Build Task Force Director Mario Wolf explained: “The church of Custom and Self Build is extremely broad – it can be a range of things. This is an opportunity for landowners and local authorities to not restrict themselves to a single model. They need to to take advantage of the different opportunities in their local circumstances.”
Learnings from the Expo
During the day examples were shared that looked into affordability in build and affordability in land provision – here’s a summary of the key approaches.
Community-led Design
“The community-led housing movement has huge potential for Custom Build. It’s about empowering individuals and groups within the community to try to create a fairer society and meet their own housing needs,” said Holmes.
“Effectively, them means they become their own developers for affordable homes, which they can then have design input into.”
This can work across a range of tenures and house types, and offers the potential to include open-market additional homes that can cross-subsidise the affordable ones.
Chris Brown, Executive Chairman and founder of Igloo Regeneration commented that community-led design, when teamed with an enabler, has huge potential for scaling up Custom Build in the UK. It’s a proven formula elsewhere in the world, from American sites where timber-frame manufacturers put in the infrastructure and plots and sell kit homes, to Japan’s customisable catalogue homes, with mortgages secured on the site and not the home.
Igloo Regeneration has been piloting a range of models to Custom Build, and has been operating in the sector for 11 years, and its experiences show that communicating and educating the public are vital to making sites work.
What’s more, there’s a perception that communities have the potential to positively influence design and regeneration, as on the whole they make better decisions about local design issues than developers do.
However, community groups are made up of amateurs, and do need a road map, with enabling companies and developers supporting them in decision making and implementation.
Click here for the Right to Build Task Force’s LOLC.
Estate Regeneration
Regeneration offers scope for scaling up, for example Igloo Regeneration’s Leathermarket Community Benefit Society, which is creating 27 new homes on the site of old single-storey garages.
Created by the local tenement management organisation, Leathermarket CBS set out to create new homes for existing tenants, who needed more suitable accommodation. Roughly half of these residents are older people in large properties, who will be moving into the new smaller homes, freeing up the larger homes for overcrowded families on the estate. In total Igloo calculates that the 27 new homes will create opportunities for 100 households to move to more suitable homes.
Igloo’s role is to be the community’s deliverer, carrying out Leathermarket CBS board’s decisions.
The success of the scheme was dependent on Southwark Council, which funded the scheme, and had a very progressive approach – selling the land for a pound. The affordability of the land is what’s enabled the project to take place.
Brown said, “There’s real potential for scaling up Custom Build, and in London this is likely to be community led. This will need enabling through some combination of local government, such as GLA, local authorities or even Homes England support, together with a variety of professional construction industry organisations.”
Another example of a community taking control of local development is the grass roots organisation PEACH, the People’s Empowerment Alliance for Custom House. It’s an independent community group of local residents and shopkeepers, that has plans for nearly 2,000 homes.
PEACH was set up in 2013 to empower local residents, with housing a key priority. The group enabled local residents to oppose the Canning Town and Custom House Regeneration Programme’s plans, coming up with an alternative scheme to the high-density proposals that reflect the local community’s needs.
Effectively, PEACH used community-led development to control the regeneration of its local area, while serving the needs and desires of local residents.
This is vital, as so often estate regeneration can easily be seen as overpowering the wishes of the people that live on site, typically with fewer affordable homes being created than were on site originally.
Replacement group dwelling
At Hafer Road a group of residents came together to buy the freehold of their building, which they then knocked down and replaced. The project took over five years from conception to completion, and gave all residents a brand new flat that was bigger and built to a higher spec than the existing ones.
By building additional open-market units they were able to cross-subsidise the build works, which contributed to the project’s viability.
While is not a straight-forward route, replacement dwellings in high-value land areas, such as London, offer a route to creating a bespoke homes, as well as valuable additionality.
Key consideration when assessing a project is to assess whether you’re meeting local affordable housing requirements, as well as factoring in finance for CIL, Section 106 payments, Stamp Duty and corporation tax, while also considering covenants and ransom strips.
It’s also important that residents understand the risk, and that their status is effectively changing from homeowner to investor for the life of the project.
Building conversions
NaCSBA considers first time change of use of existing redundant buildings into homes as a part of the figures for Custom and Self Build, commented Holmes on the day. Amsterdam illustrates that this route has significant potential for creating additional customised homes and NaCSBA is working to try and translate some of these experiences into our context, using a range of approaches and tenure. This will contribute to higher-density Custom Build homes, which will improve affordability.
Defunct buildings, especially public ones can be subdivided into apartments for people to complete themselves.
Although these are not plots in the conventional sense, these would count as meeting the duty of the Right to Build registers, especially as they are high-density solutions in areas with little available land.
The use of shell models for self-fit out offers a route to affordability too.
Affordable land
Local authorities have a huge role to play in providing opportunities for community-led Custom Builds, as affordable land holds the key to affordable homes. Some of the most successful urban schemes shared at the London Expo illustrated that a supportive council effectively gifting land can facilitate people creating their own visions for housing, such as with Leathermarket.
It was also mooted during the day that public land should first be marketed at community groups for development. This is a model that operates in some European countries, where an exclusive window for sale, often 8-12 months, gives groups the time needed to get to the point where they can bid for land.
Ted Stevens, Deputy Right to Build Task Force Ambassador and board member of RUSS, which is building a community scheme in Lewisham had the following advice for community groups starting out:
- Get properly organised as a group and know what it is you are setting out to achieve.
- Form a strong relationship with your local authority. Through the Right to Build you, as a group, should be able to exert pressure on them, in a positive way, reminding them that they have an obligation to support you in the search for a site.
- You can get a grant from Locality to help you with the initial set up costs.
- Consultation and engagement is vital for communicating your plans and educating people with very little industry knowledge. A core component in this is to design in 3D as people struggle to interpret 2D plans, while 3D plans make your ideas more accessible.
- Don’t underestimate the burn out of the volunteers and residents, as these projects have long time-frames and require a lot of work.
The Right to Build Expos
The Expos are part of the Right to Build Task Force’s role of sharing learning about Custom and Self Build, helping the sector scale up and become more affordable. The days offer a chance to benefit from other’s learnings, and develop your own best practice for how Custom and Self Build can fit in an urban environment.
Over 80 organisations and people were in attendance, so we’re bringing you a few insights from the day to help you with your own Custom and Self Build planning.
The next Right to Build Expo takes place in Glasgow on June 20. Click here for more.
