Agent wants land for self build homes in Shropshire

The council is looking to provide self-build land on sites of over 10 properties where interest has been identified.

Building your own home is seen as a more economical way to get on the housing ladder and Stuart Thomas, head of planning at Berrys, said there is a consistently high demand for self-build plots in Shropshire.

“We have a high volume of enquiries from people across the country wanting to come and live in Shropshire which is seen to be a desirable place to live and work for people of all ages,” he said.

But acquiring the land is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to self-build in the county.

“The availability of land is low and the good sites get snapped up very quickly. Often these sites don’t come to the open market place so consequently there are a low volume of sites available for people wanting to fulfil their dreams of building their own home,” Mr Thomas said.

He said buying land can also be costly, particularly as a large part of Shropshire is agricultural land which attracts a considerable uplift in value if planning permission is granted.

He said: “Anyone thinking about self-building should go into it with their eyes wide open and take professional advice from the outset. There is a whole planning process to go through which can be extremely complex and lengthy.

“If the council could look at making more land available, particularly in the smaller villages in rural areas, that would make the process a whole lot quicker and easier to navigate. Often the battle ground comes in the suitability of land for self-build projects which increases the amount of time people spend in planning.”

Mr Thomas said planners are guided by policies and if the policy is against a particular project it can be a cause of frustration for the self-builder who has invested time and money getting the design they want only to be told by planners that they don’t like the colour of the bricks or the style of the windows.

“This is an ongoing source of frustration and one way the process could improve is for planning authorities to actually take more of a positive and proactive approach to self-builders and allow some flexibility. Ultimately it will be someone’s family home for the rest of their life and it’s hard for self-builders to hear that the council doesn’t like their design when they have put a lot of time effort and money into it,” he said.

But there is hope in the future that the planning process may allow more sites to become available. Shropshire Council is going through a process of releasing something in the region of 28,000 to 29,000 new homes over the next 15 years in the county.

Mr Thomas added: “We would like to see that number increased particularly in the places that are more desirable. We have a big problem in Shropshire regarding a brain drain. A lot of people are leaving the county to work elsewhere and if the council could find a way of releasing land, for local people in certain circumstances, that could dramatically help increase the amount of and quality of self-build and protect some of our younger people from having to move away from the county.”