Building Holmes

Just got back from a very busy Scottish Homebuilding & Renovating Show at the SECC. One of the recurring questions was about glass extensions and how to meet the building standards (as the building regulations are called in Scotland.)

Several frustrated readers who want to build extensions using large areas of glazing are being told by their architects that it cannot be done because the total glazed area of an extension cannot exceed 25% of the new floor area.

Excluding self-build projects (and small sites) from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) in tomorrow's budget would provide a boost to self-build and the construction sector. The Chancellor may even scrap the CIL altogether and replace it with a tax on planning gain, which is much fairer than taxing development gain. The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a local tax on new development raised to provide funds towards local infrastructure projects such as roads and schools, which are required to meet the needs of the residents of large scale new housing developments. read more

VAT at 20% provides a very big incentive to home improvers to use a non VAT registered builder, or to pay in cash, in order to avoid the tax. This costs the treasury, but can also play into the hands of cowboy builders. Meanwhile legitimate builders cannot compete on equal terms, because they are at least 20% more expensive, and probably more if they are doing everything by the books. read more

A few additions to this week's budget could provide a boost for self-builders and renovators and help kickstart the economy. A Boost to the Supply of Single Building Plots Offering landowners an incentive to sell-off individual serviced plots by offering tax breaks could change the profile of the housebuilding market in the UK, resulting in a significant increase in one-off, sustainable, individual self-build homes, whilst also improving affordability. This could provide an important boost to the economy. read more

Planning is politics, and whilst most people agree we need more and better quality housing, nobody actually wants that housing on their own doorstep. As a result, very little new housing is actually approved and even less is built. As long as planning remains political, and bureaucracy can be used to prevent or delay development, there will be no increase in housebuilding. This is why the Government are proposing a shake up of the planning system in the budget next week. read more

With so many seemingly contradictory reports and projections for the direction of UK house prices coming out recently it's very difficult to understand what is really going on. Here I try to shed some light on how figures for the same thing can vary so wildly. Today Nationwide BS released a report that 'prices climbed by a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent month-on-month, defying economists' forecasts for a fall of 0.3 percent following January's 0.1 percent drop.' read more

Modular building systems - using standardised components - have been around since the Romans invented clay bricks, and maybe longer. Various attempts have been made since to create larger format modular components to speed up the whole process of homebuilding, including giant lightweight concrete blocks, timber frame panels - and whole timber framed walls. None has yet really taken off in a big way and superseded brick and block. read more

Following my last blog I did a little more research and discovered that an unauthorised change of use to a single dwelling is immune from enforcement by a local planning authority after 4 years and not 10. Any legal or planning experts care to comment on this? This results from case law which you can read about below. http://www.propertylawuk.net/planningenforcementuser.html read more

Every year I meet a few self-builders who have managed to build their dream home on a site where it defies belief that planning was granted, often in the open countryside, or by a river or in some other beautiful remote spot. Often they have achieved their dream thanks to a loophole in the planning system known as the 'four year rule', whereby a breach of planning policy becomes immune from enforcement action by the local authority after a period of four years (ten years for a change of use). read more