Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage 'self-build' housing.

Government has put in place a range of measures to encourage self and custom housebuilding including the Self & Custom Housebuilding legislation. The legislation is focussed on bringing forward more suitable land, providing access to developer finance through the £2.5 billion Home Building Fund and working with finance providers to increase mortgage availability. We have allocated £95,000 of new burdens funding to each relevant authority to support them to fulfil their duties under the legislation to maintain a register of people who want to acquire serviced plots of land in their area; and permission serviced land to satisfy demand on the register. Additionally, we strengthened the National Planning Policy Framework to state that self and custom build properties can provide affordable housing and that demand must be taken into account when determining housing need and reflected in planning policies. The Department also supports the National Custom and Self Build Association’s ‘Right to Build Task Force’ which helps local authorities, community groups and other organisations to deliver affordable self and custom build housing across the UK.