Housing Minister Grant Shapps has launched an initiative to enable aspiring self-builders to build their own home.

Self-builders are already the country's largest house builder and account for 20% of Britain's new homes each year. However, the red-tape and restrictions on building has frequently meant that the dreams of ordinary people who want to build their own home have been frustrated, leaving self-build the preserve of the wealthy.

Under the proposed Community Right to Build, local communities will have the ability to approve new building projects without the need for a planning application, where there is overwhelming community support for the development and minimum criteria are met. These could be local people wanting to build their own home or community organisations looking to build entire developments including business premises and facilities such as a sports centre or community hall.

However the Community Right to Build will not enable communities to expand by more than 10% over a 10 year period.

The hope is that this will empower communities to solve their own housing needs, including affordable housing schemes, and lead to active regeneration.

Whilst concerns have been voiced that the relaxing of planning rules will lead to poor quality homes being built, anyone building their own home would still be required to comply with Building Regulations and national planning guidelines.

Moving forward, officials will hold talks with the National Self Build Association, which campaigns on the issue, to identify potential barriers, look to how plots of public land might be released and work with banks to encourage lending.

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