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A significant minority of local councils in England are resisting the will of the government by undermining the Right to Build registers, according to the National Custom and Self Build Association (NaCSBA).

Andrew Baddeley-Chappell, CEO of NaCSBA, spoke on BBC Radio 4’s You & Yours programme today about the problems people who’ve signed up to the Right to Build registers have faced, and continue to face.

The Right to Build legislation supports people who want to build their own homes, requiring local authorities to help find suitable plots them through the Right to Build registers. 

Around 11,400 new registrations have been added to the self and custom build registers in the past 12 months, but these numbers do not match the underlying demand, with councils using dirty tricks in some instances, NaCSBA has reported.

“A significant minority of local councils are undertaking steps to resist or thwart the will of government and the needs of the people,” said Baddeley-Chappell.

“We’ve found some pretty shocking practices from local authorities that have made it more difficult for individuals either by making it too hard to join the registers, or removing people once they are on the register, or simply counting all new permissions as potentially suitable for custom and self build even if they know that a major house builder is going to build on the site.” 

Baddeley-Chappell also called out the financial restrictions preventing people from joining the lists. “Around 15% of councils charge to be on the lists – the worst example is a council called Three Rivers District Council [in Hertfordshire], which charges £725 over four years simply to register your interest. Those costs need to be cost-justified but it seems pretty clear that Three Rivers won’t be able to do that.” 

What’s the Future of Right to Build?

Later this year councils will have to demonstrate their ability to meet the demand all over again, and Baddeley-Chappell is concerned that the situation could worsen still. “Problems that are building up now are just going to grow into a greater problem in years to come,” he said.

With more registrations each year, the demand is poised to increase, but the UK will remain behind other countries in the custom and self build sector unless councils focus on meeting the demand.

“Custom and self build is relatively rare in the UK – we estimate around 13,000 homes were built in the last year – but if you look across the rest of the developed world then around 40% of all homes are delivered this way. Were we doing that in the UK then we’d be building around 80,000 homes this way.”

You can find your local self and custom build registers on NaCSBA’s Right to Build Portal.

The relaxation of Permitted Development rights has been criticised in a new report for facilitating the creation of poorly-designed homes. 

The Building Better, Building Beautiful commission published a report this week, titled Living in Beauty, which recommends major changes to Permitted Development rights.

The report criticised the government for Permitted Development rights which allow offices to be converted into homes without planning permission, leading to poorly-designed homes without adequate infrastructure.

This, the Local Government Association (LGA) said earlier this month, has led to 13,500 fewer affordable homes since 2015 because developers are not obligated to enter into planning obligations with local authorities, meaning the local authority can lose out on applying restrictions and provisions for affordable housing. 

“Severe [housing] shortage means that opportunistic developers can abuse permitted development rights to produce accommodation of the lowest quality to house those with no alternative. In some instances, we have inadvertently permissioned future slums,” the report says. 

The authors argue that local authorities should have the power to design standards for Permitted Development, and fines should be increased for those who breach the conditions of their planning permission. 

The Building Better, Building Beautiful commission said that by deregulating Permitted Development rights to promote new homes, the government has “thrown the baby out with the bathwater”.

How to Improve Building Standards

The authors have called for better standards to be implemented into Building Regulations, requiring higher-quality design for new build homes and neighbourhoods.

One way to achieve this could be to move minimum home or room sizes into building regulations, the report suggests. This would mean that regardless of whether a development requires planning permission or could be approved under Permitted Development, it would need to meet set design criteria under the regulations. 

However, the authors stopped short of calling for Permitted Development rights that enable office conversions into homes to be removed. 

Tackling ‘Slum’ Housing

Alan Jones, president of Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), welcomed the report and called for the government to act on the findings.

He said: “The commission has rightly condemned permitted development rights, which leave local authorities powerless to stop the development of poor-quality and potentially dangerous ‘slum’ housing.

“The government must acknowledge the dire impacts of this policy and urgently address the commission’s findings.”

The Building Better, Building Beautiful commission has also recommended changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPBF) that would make it easier to turn down planning applications on design grounds.

The government should fast-track planning permission for beautiful housing in the UK, according to a new report, which could be significant for self builders.

The Building Better, Building Beautiful commission published its Living in Beauty report this week which has recommended a series of measures designed to increase attractive housing. The commission was set up in 2018 to investigate how millions of homes can be built in England without compromising on quality and aesthetics. 

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick specifically mentioned self builders in his response to the report, and stressed action needs to be taken to ensure the planning system makes approval easier for attractive builds. 

(MORE: Self Build: All You Need to Know About Building a Bespoke Home)

Jenrick said: “We need to ensure our planning system, with all its flaws and complexities and convolutions favours beauty as the default rather than the exception, with more opportunities for smaller developers, for self builders, for entrepreneurs, for visionaries for great stewards of their landscapes.

“I will establish a ‘fast-track for beauty’ where individuals and developers, who have put in the time to create proposals for well-designed buildings, which use high quality-materials which take account of their local setting; that they can see their developments proceed at pace.”

Should the findings be adopted as policy, self builders could find it easier to secure planning permission if their builds are well designed and use high-quality materials. 

(MORE: Read Robert Jenrick’s speech in full)

Easier to Get Planning Permission

The proposed measures include planting two million trees, giving powers to local authorities to set design standards and awarding tax breaks for retrofitted buildings.

The report argues that if new housing developments are more aesthetic, they will be granted planning permission more easily as homeowners within the community are less likely to object.

This will incentivise developers, the report says, to use high-quality materials and create proposals for well-designed buildings, and will lead to fewer planning applications being held up. 

A goal of planting two million trees on streets should be implemented, the commission suggests, and developers should be encouraged to plant a fruit tree in an urban community orchard per house they build. 

Giving Local Authorities More Power

The Building Better, Building Beautiful commission has also recommended changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPBF) that would make it easier for local authorities to turn down planning applications on design grounds.

Jenrick agreed that local authorities need to have greater influence in the design of new homes. He added: “The report is right that local authorities will need to play a leading role in this design revolution. We will need to ensure they have the right skills and leadership to fully carry out their role as placemakers.”

Crispin Truman, chief executive of Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), the countryside charity, said of the report: “The Commission is right to call for stronger local policies and more weight given to beauty in planning decisions. New homes and new places must be attractive, but also easy to get around without a car, pleasant to live in, low-carbon and friendly to nature. We urge ministers to take up the commission’s recommendations.”

Builders are more optimistic for their businesses this year following the so-called ‘Boris bounce’, according to a new survey by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

The FMB’s State of Trade Survey for the quarter ending December 2019 revealed that 37% of builders are predicting higher workloads over the coming three months.

Boris Johnson’s General Election victory in December 2019 has been credited with UK house prices increasing in recent weeks, and the so-called ‘Boris bounce’ could be spreading to builders.

Growing uncertainty over Brexit had previously been associated by over 40% of tradespeople to slower business growth, and by one third of self builders, renovators and extenders who cancelled their home improvement plans. 

Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, said: “Builders are more optimistic for the for the future, with over a third of small to medium-sized (SME) construction workers predicting higher workloads over the coming three months. We are yet to see if there has been a so-called ‘Boris bounce’ yet, following the election result, but there are some positive signs.”

One of these positive signs was employment activity increasing for the first time since early-2019, with 19% of builders reporting increased staffing levels. 

Looking to the Future

The survey also revealed that workloads for small building companies fell between October-December 2019, with roughly 21% of firms reporting reduced workloads. This was 5% higher than the previous quarter ending September 2019. 

Northern Ireland was the only UK nation to experience an increase in workloads and enquiries. 

“The end of 2019 was a very turbulent period in the UK, both politically and economically, with Brexit gridlock and a General Election. When you consider this, along with the bad weather we saw in October, it is not surprising that the order books of small and medium-sized construction firms took a hit,” said Berry,

“We know that many consumers were holding off making important spending decisions until the outcome of the General Election was known and this took its toll on workloads”.

The FMB anticipates material and wage costs to rise the next six months, but Berry is optimistic that the first post-Brexit Budget due in early March will provide an opportunity to restore confidence into the construction industry.  

“Builders will be instrumental in delivering key government objectives such as 300,000 new homes by the mid-2020s and reaching Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050,” Berry added.

“Radical policies will be needed to deliver these targets which should include reform of the planning system and a new strategy to make our existing homes more energy efficient.”

VAT on renovations should be reduced to a maximum of 5% to align the system more closely with new builds, a new report recommends.

The Building Better, Building Beautiful commission was established in 2018 to develop measures that would ensure new homes are built with high-quality design, and fit within existing communities. 

In its new report, Living in Beauty, which has been published today, the commission calls on the government to ‘align VAT on housing renovation and repair with new build in order to stop disincentivising the re-use of existing buildings’.

(MORE: Renovating a House: A Complete Guide)

Under the current VAT system the construction of a new-build is zero rated, while the vast majority of housing renovations and improvements are charged the full rate of 20%.

The report argues that certain renovation works such as ‘reroofing, extensions, conversions and renewable heating’ should be zero rated or at most charged a reduced rate of 5%, as should ‘bringing derelict buildings back into use’.

(MORE: Can you reclaim VAT on your building project?)

Brian Berry, chairman of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), welcomed the proposal. He said: “The FMB has been calling for a cut to VAT for many years, but the time really has come to make the cut.

“I am glad the commission has highlighted the perverse situation where people are incentivised to demolish old buildings, rather than restoring them, due to our archaic VAT regime.”

Making a Green Impact

The report said that the implementation of this VAT change could reduce 240,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide across 92,000 homes.

In 2019, the Architects’ Journal launched its RetroFirst campaign argued that “the greenest building is the one that is already built”, and the Living in Beauty report supported this message: “The need to address this commands increasing public recognition, having been championed by the Architects’ Journal in its RetroFirst campaign.”

The ‘inconsistency of the VAT position within a system that seeks to ensure the most sustainable and popular’ development outcomes was also highlighted.

But Berry insists that the report doesn’t go far enough. He added: “The Treasury should cut VAT on all domestic repair and renovation, not just the areas listed in the report. The upcoming Budget provides the perfect opportunity to do this, and to help make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.”

The government’s housing ambition has been called into question after new data revealed it has fallen behind its target to provide new build homes. 

There has been an 11% dip in the number of new build homes started between July-September 2019 compared to the same period in 2018. The findings have been released today by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

A total of 39,510 new builds were started during the quarter ending September 2019, down from 44,480 between July-September 2018.

The government has set a target of delivering a million homes in the next five years, but annual new build starts only totalled 157,550 in the year to September – a 7% decrease compared with the previous year.

While completions totalled close to 178,000 – an increase of 9% compared with the previous year – the government is not on target to meet its ambitions of 200,000 homes each year. 

Jason Orme, Content Director of Homebuilding & Renovating, said of the findings: “The latest housebuilding figures show that the current housing system is not capable of delivering the homes we so badly need in the UK.”

A more positive finding from the government’s report was that the latest quarterly total of self build starts was up 2% compared with the previous three months. 

Self Build: The Mainstream Housing Alternative?

Orme added: “Relying pretty much solely on private developers to build homes will always result in a constriction of supply and resulting higher prices. It’s only when radical change allows individuals to be masters of their own housing choices that significant growth will come.”

(MORE: Read Jason’s The Year of Self Build blog)

Self building your own home offers several benefits compared to buying a home: it can be tailored to your needs, preferences and budget, and can often help you get more value for money. 

Despite the government’s struggles in meeting its homebuilding targets, another encouraging statistic revealed that the 46,000 new build homes that were completed between July-September 2019 was 11% higher than the same period in 2018. 

However, the government’s completion of new houses in England was criticised this month for being mediocre and of poor design. The audit led by University College London also claimed that 75% of new housing developments should not have received planning permission. 

The next quarterly release will be published in March 2020 and will cover homebuilding data up to the quarter ending December 2019.