‘Give land to self-builders’

UP to 40,000 extra homes could be made available every year if more land was offered to people to build their own properties, a review on housing has found.

Richard Bacon MP was asked by Boris Johnson to “develop a plan for a major scaling up of selfcommissioned homes”.

In his report, the Tory MP for South Norfolk said more homes were needed but “quite simply, new housing is feared”.

He added: “Instead of new housing that most people want, we have a soulless monoculture.”

The solution, he said was to create a situation whereby “people themselves commission the houses they would like to see”.

Mr Bacon’s review recommends that a custom and self-build delivery unit should be established to make more land available for these homes.

It estimated reforms could mean between 30,000 and 40,000 self-build homes a year.