Grand Designs Live, the award winning home build and design show at the London Excel centre will be a central hub of activity for the event which will also see things taking place all around the country.
An Ipsos MORI poll recently showed that around six million people in Briton are currently planning or researching how to build a home for themselves and want to start their new home in the next year or so. A further one million people have already moved from the researching to the action stage, and are currently in the process of acquiring a building plot, obtaining planning permission or expect to start construction in the next 12 months.
Despite all this interest, in 2012 only around 12,000 Britons managed to build a home this way. And the UK’s self build output is a fraction of that delivered by most European countries. This mismatch between desire to build a home and the actual output clearly highlights the need for a dedicated National Self Build Week, according to McCloud.
Housing Minister Mark Prisk and Ted Stevens from the National Self Build Association joined McCloud to formerly launch National Self Build Week and to debate the future of self build in the UK.
Prisk unveiled a number of initiatives to help grow the UK self build sector. These include a new Need a Plot feature on the Self Build Portal, and the launch of a guide aimed at local authorities, regeneration agencies and housing associations.
‘One of the main barriers self-builders have faced in the past has been to find a suitable plot on which to build their dream home. We've been determined to tackle this, ensuring through our planning reforms that councils must consider the needs of those looking to self build when drawing up their local plans for development,’ said Prisk.
‘So I'm delighted that the Self Build Portal will now include a Plot Wanted feature, so aspiring self builders can put their call out to landowners and agents and find the site that's right for them,’ he explained.
The minister also applauded the new guidance for public sector organisations. ‘This excellent guide provides councils and housing associations with a good overview of the many ways they can encourage self build in their area. Some councils are already doing this, but others could do much more. So I urge them to use this guide to ensure people in their local community can also have the opportunity to build their own home,’ he added.
The document is available free from the NaSBA’s website and it showcases the many ways it is now possible to encourage larger scale self build projects.
During this week there will be a further series of high level debates and other events at Grand Designs Live featuring Planning Minister Nick Boles, alongside TV presenters McCloud and George Clarke. Regionally there are also events taking place across the UK from open days, to seminars and various firms offering special discounts.
There will be opportunities to discover the many ways it is now possible to get a home built. There are a number of new self build projects that are in the pipeline including a ground breaking project that could provide up to 1,000 self build homes in Oxfordshire; an initiative that will help 150 families in villages across Devon buy a site and build a three bedroom eco home for just £100,000 each; and a pioneering regeneration project in Cornwall that will provide around 80 custom build homes on a former tin mine site.
There are also two projects in the North East of the country, one that will deliver 39 serviced building plots at Newcastle Great Park; and another in Middlesbrough that should provide scores more innovative self build homes as well as proposals for 150 self build homes as part of a new town to the west of Cambridge, a new site for 50 to 60 self build homes in Shrewsbury and a 91 home high tech zero energy self build project near Plymouth.
‘These projects will transform the UK self build sector and provide a real showcase for the many innovative ways more self or custom built homes can be delivered. The pioneering councils and developers that are involved are to be applauded for their vision and enterprise,’ said Ted Stevens, chairman of the National Self Build Association (NaSBA).
National Self Build Week is a new campaign being run by NaSBA and the organisers of the Grand Designs Live exhibition, which takes place at Excel during the week. It is supported by the Department for Communities and Local Government, and many of the companies active in the self build sector.
