Register for the Right to Build

If you are interested in building your own home in Plymouth, you can now register to do so.

Plymouth City Council is working to make it easier for people to build their own self build or custom build homes in the city. As of this month you can register for the right to build, under the Self and Custom House-building Act 2015 which you can do via our website.

The Government recently published guidance on how councils should manage demand for self-build and custom housebuilding. A key element of the guidance is the need to keep a ‘Right to Build Register’ of interested people and communities which will help indicate how much local demand there is for self and custom build in Plymouth. The information on the Right to Build Register will allow councils to develop housing and planning policies to support the most appropriate self and custom build projects.

Plymouth has already identified more than 100 self-build sites and has committed to promoting self-build as part of its Plan for Homes 2016-2021 which aims to deliver 5,000 new homes over the next five years through a wide range of housing initiatives, one of which is self-build.

A spokesperson for Plymouth City Council said: “Self-build homes can be a way of saving money and also have the advantage of being tailored to your own tastes. There are currently 112 self-build plots identified in Plymouth on sites across the city, including Whitleigh, Ernesettle, West Park, Bickleigh and Kings Tamerton. All of these plots are serviced, some have planning consent, some are being delivered by third parties and we will apply for planning consent on others in the future.”

Roy Critchlow is a self-builder who is building his own home on land at Shirburn Road.

Roy said: “My wife and I have decided to self build through Plymouth City Council’s self-build procedure, the ideal situation for us at the moment.

“Plymouth City Council has allowed our dream to come true, we have been looking for land for a couple of years so when we saw this come up last year we could not believe our luck.

“I think it’s spot on what they are doing.”

Options for self and custom-build include:

Building on the plot yourself
Forming a self-build group or cooperative with others
Kit build – the components are manufactured off-site
Shell – house is built to your design then you finish off the interior yourself
Custom build – the house is built to your design by others
Affordable self-build (working with The Land Society) – including courses to teach people how to build.
For more information on self and custom build and the Right to Build visit http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/selfbuild