As the need for good affordable housing becomes ever more pressing, the announcement by housing minister Grant Shapps that the government has released £1.8 billion to facilitate the building of new homes will be welcomed by many, especially those interested in building their own home.
20,000 homes for sale in the west
Prospective homeowners are finding mortgages difficult to come by at the moment and the announcement that the West and South West will get almost £250,000 million of the budget will delight many families in one of England’s most rural areas. Although approximately 75% of the planned 80,000 homes will be for rent and will be built by housing associations, that will still leave 20,000 homes at affordable prices for people to buy.
Agency will oversee planning
The planning will be under the auspices of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and will be ongoing for over a decade. For many young couples who thought they would never get to own a home of their own, the start of the scheme cannot come quick enough.
Self builders to be included
A portion of the money will also be set aside for people to partake in self build schemes. Minister Grant Shapps has long expressed an interest in self builds and of course for many it is the only way they will ever afford a place of their own. The Ashley Vale self build project in Bristol demonstrates what can be done by a collective of people determined to complete a project and the green, ecological standards introduced at Ashley Vale will certainly find favour with the HCA.
Ashley Vale a good example
The community at Ashley Vale is now over two years old and has come under the scrutiny of many project leaders and politicians keen to learn from the experiences and drawbacks the self builders encountered while developing their project. The main problem for the project managers was that the site was covered with a huge block of concrete that could not be disturbed. This meant all the buildings and all the utility services had to build on top of the concrete. It caused many problems and the homeowners had to arrange special homeowners insurance to take account of this. However, the buildings, many of them wooden eventually took shape and the individualism of the self builders has made the project something special.
Tags: Ashley Vale self build project, Build Your Own Home, Building New Homes, First Time Buyers, new homes