Yes, I do. That is what I have seen in the Netherlands and we should have it here too.
5.15 pm
I rise to speak to new clauses 115 and 112, both of which stand in my name. The purpose of these two new clauses is to amend the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015, which I should point out the Government themselves are now seeking to amend in Government new clause 68. I like new clause 68, but my own new clause 115 does a similar job and is even stronger and clearer. The Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act, which started life many years ago as my private Member’s Bill, places a statutory duty on local authorities to keep a register of persons who wish to acquire a serviced plot of land on which to bring forward their own self-build and custom house building projects.
A serviced plot of land is one where the services—the electricity, fresh water, drainage, broadband and so on—are already installed. Doubtless in the years to come that will also include an induction pad for an electric car, so that people do not have to plug them in. Serviced plots make things much easier: all the difficult bits are done. A self-build or custom house building project is one where the individual who will be the occupier of the home has the main input into the full design and layout. It does not include homes that are bought off plan or those where buyers simply have a say over the choice of carpets or tiles. Customers do not need to be involved in building the houses themselves. Indeed, the purpose of my new clause 112 is to recognise
in law that most homes are built by building firms, businesses or companies, even in the case of individuals who wish to build a home and occupy it afterwards. The design factor is the most important one.
In the Housing and Planning Act 2016, the Government strengthened the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 by adding a further obligation that authorities must give enough suitable planning permissions to meet the demand on the register. In effect, this means that the greater the demand, the further the legal duty on the authority to provide more planning permissions is ratcheted up. So far, so good, and many ambitious councils have taken this to heart, including councils such as Cherwell, which is delivering large-scale projects such as Graven Hill; councils such as York, Durham and Plymouth, which are releasing council-owned land for serviced plots; councils such as Bristol, Central Bedfordshire, Cornwall, Plymouth, Shropshire, Stratford-on-Avon, Teignbridge and West Oxfordshire, which already have strong policy frameworks; and councils such as South Gloucestershire and Teignbridge, which employ dedicated custom and self-build officers to co-ordinate delivery.
But there is much more to do, and some councils are trying to thwart the aims of Parliament, either by counting every application as a self-build when it is not or by seeking to manipulate downwards the numbers on the registers by insisting on a local connection test, by charging a substantial fee or even by removing people’s names when they have not yet met their obligations to those registered individuals. My proposals would make it much more difficult for councils to behave in that way, and would substantially increase the likelihood that more supply will come forward, which is what we need if we are to create a world in which more people on ordinary incomes have the chance to bring forward their own schemes and have a dwelling of their own.