NaCSBA is pleased to share the news that the two councils identified as having the highest fees for signing up to, and staying on, their Right to Build registers in 2018 have both made substantial changes to the fees charged.
Wandsworth Council has been in touch to confirm that they have reduced their fee of £600 for over four years to £150. West Lancashire have reduced their fee from £480 to £50 for four years.
Unfortunately, taking their place is Three Rivers who have set a new record high fee of £725 over 4 years. Excessive fees is one of NaCSBA’s list of ‘dirty tricks’, the practices that some councils have been using to unfairly prevent reduce those seeking a place to build or commission their own home from signing up a Right to Build register.
Andrew Baddeley-Chappell, NaCSBA CEO welcomed the news from Wandsworth and West Lancashire, saying, “At a time when more people would like to build a home than buy a new one, it is disappointing to have to call out bad practice when we see it. We are, however, pleased to see that the work we do can make a real difference and we welcome the changes that have been made.”
“Our focus now switches to Three Rivers, and we hope that they too will reflect on their approach to the sector and we will see another change of heart, paving the way for more homes to be built that people actually want to live in, and that local residents are happier to see built.”
NaCSBA’s Freedom of Information request found that as well as excessive charges, some councils were removing people from their registers and also miscounting properties as contributing towards their self build quotas that were never marketed as self build plots.
As well as creating a picture of activity across the sector, the research is a route to holding authorities with bad practice to account, as NaCSBA shares the data with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. NaCSBA also hopes that the long awaited accelerated planning white paper will remove many of the risks and unnecessary constraints on those contain Custom and Self Build sector.
