Britons offered £150m help to build own home
BRITONS will be encouraged to buy land from the council to build their own homes, under a £150m scheme being consulted on by the government.
Proposals for a new right to build scheme, announced by the chancellor yesterday, would allow custom builders a right to a plot of land from councils on which they can build their own homes.
George Osborne said the scheme will also include £150m of funding to help self-builders buy up to 10,000 serviced plots land.
The move is part of a package of housing measures announced in the Budget yesterday, which together are expected to deliver 200,000 new homes.
The chancellor also set out plans to give smaller housebuilders access to a £500m builders’ finance fund, which will offer loans to help unlock 15,000 homes that have stalled due to difficulty in accessing finance.
Critics said that while self-build measures were encouraging the country was still far off from building the 240,000 new homes a year needed to meet the country’s housing shortage.
“While these initiatives are welcome, they need to be seen in the context of total housing need,” Savills’ research director Susan Emmett said.