Following the Government’s recent announcement on its new ‘Help to Build’ initiative, which promises to deliver an envisaged 40,000 new homes a year by providing more than ‘£150m new funding’, making it easier for people to obtain specialist mortgages to build their own homes: 

Scott Winnard, Partner and Joint Head of Land Development at National Chartered Surveyors Bruton Knowles, comments: 

“Whilst the news of £150m additional funding for individuals to build their own homes is certainly a positive step forward, we need to address the practicalities in delivering it.

“It calls for an increase in the number of developers willing to prepare custom build sites. There are very few specialist custom build developers currently operating and this is an exciting venture to be involved with, but what we need is venture capitalists to take on delivery of buying sites and provide the infrastructure. In addition, self build plots need to be delivered, not just on parcels within housing estates but also smaller bespoke sites. Self-builders are looking for attractive sites and a corner within a generic housing estate is not the answer.

“Another detrimental factor is that we don’t currently have planning consents targeted to deliver customs builds, and for this to work, the right planning consents need to be agreed. In theory it’s a great idea but practically, the only way it will work is if planning policy makes it easier to achieve planning, similar to rural exception sites.

“It will be interesting to see how this one plays out as we see the initiative move forward.”

Bruton Knowles has 10 offices across the UK and last year, as part of its wider company restructure and expansion programme, the ambitious property firm announced the launch of two new teams, Utilities and Infrastructure and National Valuations. Who work alongside Planning and Land Development, Commercial and Rural. Contact Bruton Knowles for more information on property or progressing your career.