Housing Minister Champions Custom Build

ousing minister H Alok Sharma has expressed a desire to double the number of custom builders in the UK and has said the government is ‘ committed’ to self- and custom build. Speaking at the first Right to Build Expo, organised by the Right to Build Task Force and the National Custom and Self Build Association (NACSBA), Mr Sharma said: “Having seen Graven Hill recently it’s a fantastic example of what can be achieved with self- and custom build [and] we are really committed to the route. We’d like to double the 10,000 people who build using this model annually.”

At a separate event, ‘ Why aren’t we building the houses we need?’, Mr Sharma outlined the Conservative government’s approach to housing: “In 2022, we want peo- ple to look back and say that the Conservatives delivered fairness in the housing market, whether that is renting or buying,” he told attendees. “We just need to build more homes. We need to diversify the number of people out there building homes, and champion custom building. If we delivered custom houses at the same rate as Germany, we would be building 60,000 homes a year.”

Planning Application Fee Rise Imminent

Speaking at the RESI 2017 conference before the Expo, Mr Sharma also recommitted the government to pushing through a 20% increase in planning application fees; the intention is for local authorities to invest the additional fee in their planning departments. With all planning authorities accepting the conditions, Mr Sharma said: “We are bringing forward the necessary regulations in the autumn to apply the increase.”

The fee raise had initially been due to come into force in July 2017, but due to some uncertainty over the timing of the fee increase and the wording of the policy being left open to interpretation, the policy hasn’t been brought into force yet.