As the Conservatives establish a majority Government, what does this mean for the custom and self build industry?
The General Election result confirms that the Conservatives will be leading the direction of the UK housing market over the next five years. Their agenda for housing includes offering 1.3m tenants the ‘Right to Buy’ housing association homes, and the ‘Right to Build’ — a pledge to give everyone the opportunity to build their own home.
I thought I’d offer you my thoughts on the Conservative Party’s property manifesto commitments:
‘The Right to Build’
Whatever your politics, the Conservative majority is good news if you are amongst the one million people who say they would like to build their own home over the next five years (this according to an IPSOS MORI poll commissioned by NaCSBA last month). The party’s manifesto pledged to at least double the number of custom-built and self-built homes by 2020, and take forward a new Right to Build, requiring councils to allocate land to local people to build or commission their own home.
‘The Right to Buy’
The proposed extension of the Right to Buy policy will provide a significant boost for the housebuilding sector, as the full value of receipts from the sale of social housing and the most valuable council properties will have to be invested in building more affordable homes. NaCSBA will encourage local authorities, housing associations and others responsible for developing these homes to include affordable self build and custom build opportunities in their thinking. As well as meeting the aspirations of would-be homeowners who cannot afford to raise a sufficiently large deposit, they could also create serviced plots on the same sites for sale on the open market, and use the profits from this to subsidise more affordable homes.
Extending the Right to Buy is controversial, but may help thousands of households fulfill the dream of becoming homeowners and provide a much needed boost for the economy and employment.
Promise to enact the ‘Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015’
This is a law that was passed just before the General Election. It will require local planning authorities to assess demand for self- and custom-build in their area by introducing a register, and then ensure they make provision for this in their five year land supply. The 2015 IPSOS MORI poll found that 26m adults would like to build their own home at some stage in their life. In spite of this latent demand, the number of self build and custom build homes completed this year is only expected to be around 10,000.
Would-be self builders currently have their dreams thwarted by a lack of affordable plots and finance. The Conservative manifesto aims high and recognises the major role would-be self builders could play in boosting housebuilding and solving the nation’s housing crisis.
Conservatives will support locally-led garden cities and towns (such as Ebbsfleet and Bicester) and prioritise brownfield development
This strategy will ensure that homes are always matched by the necessary infrastructure to support them. These new developments will include a high proportion of self-build and custom-build plots, generating affordable opportunities.
