Right to Build registers

What is the Right to Build?

The Right to Build is a piece of legislation specific to England that gives individuals the legal right to register their interest in building or commissioning their own home, and places corresponding duties on local authorities to respond to that demand.

The framework rests on two pieces of law:

• The Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 requires all local authorities in England to maintain a register of people and groups who are seeking to purchase serviced plots in their area, and to have regard to that register when carrying out their planning and housing functions.
• The Housing and Planning Act 2016 goes further, requiring local authorities to grant sufficient development permissions to meet the demand recorded on their registers, on a rolling three-year cycle.

The Right to Build went live on 31 October 2016. It applies in England only — equivalent legislation does not currently exist in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland.