Cooperative and Mutual Housing Housing
Self Build
‘Self Organised Housing’
Self build for 15 Homes
Housing Corporation offered guarantee so finance could
be obtained by a merchant bank.
20 hours a week each on site.
£27,000 : 1983
Minerva Self Build Housing Group: Bath
Plot Cost: £30,000
Build Cost: £45,000
Build cost per m2: £410
Plot Cost: £30,000
Build Cost: £43,000
Build cost per m2: £430
Proportion of housing built via self build
average
Self build for rent model using public finance
Members worked for 24 hours per week over a period of
two years.
Each tenant benefits from a reduced rent as well as the
possibility of a capital payment if they should ever
decide to vacate their home.
South London Family Housing Association (SLFHA)
Private self build on same site.
20 Plots
Each self builder signed up to a AVAG contract.
Use of materials from Cat A of BREEAM Guide.
No conditions on re-sale
Ashley Vale Action Group (AVAG)
Private self finish.
6 Plots
Each self finisher undertakes internal work to their home
Bristol (AVAG)
Private and cooperative collective self builds
Groups have own project manager to deliver building
according to their design and brief.
Homes can be self finished
Vauban, Germany
Commonhold delivery of building.
Renovation of 1960 office building.
Flats are self finished
Includes work space and communal space for local area.
Bristol (AVAG)
Winner - South West Green Energy Award 2009
Currently, in the UK, virtually all new housing is provided by a small number of
powerful volume Housebuilders - who charge a lot because they have to make a
reasonable profit for their shareholders.
Social housebuilding has declined and – in the current climate – its doubtful that
there will be a sudden increase.
Despite the downturn, individual self builders continue to churn out 15,000+
homes a year, even though they face many challenges, particularly in finding
sites and getting finance.
The big opportunity is to encourage more Self-Organised schemes – perhaps
linked to Local Housing or Community Land Trusts.
How would they work?
A group of people decide, for example, that they want to build a terrace of ecohomes. They form a Trust to acquire the site, design their development, get a
contractor to build the basic structure, and they finish off the internal works,
doing as much, or as little, as they feel able to do. The result is a tailor made ecohome, for perhaps 60% the normal cost.
So how can this sector be supported?
Central Government and local authority recognition of the benefits –
• Encourage councils to support self build and self-finish projects.
• Encourage councils to make publicly owned sites available for sale to selffinish groups, and give people enough time to get their plans and finance
sorted.
Make it easier for groups of people to acquire sites and undertake feasibility.
Creation of a revolving fund to enable:
• infrastructure to be put in place
• sites to be purchased (where land cannot be donated via a Trust).
• encourage the mortgage lenders to develop new financial products to serve
the sector, (Particularly multiple projects on one site)
Showcase best practice.
Set up a small number of (virtually) self-financing pilot schemes, and
communicate the learning points that emerge from these to others, so we get a
snowballing effect.
www.nasba.org.uk