Advice on self-build and custom build

There are a number of organisations and websites that can provide you with guidance and information on how to go about the process of building your own home.

The Self Build Portal

The government partnered with the National Custom and Self-Build Association to create the Self-Build Portal. This offers independent and wide-ranging advice on a number of aspects of self- and custom building. It covers finding land, financing development, methods of building, health and safety, timescales, case studies, suppliers and other information.

The Self Build Portal

The Self Build Directory

This is a directory of information on the types of resources needed by self- and custom builders and provides links to various sources of advice, products and services.

The Self Build Directory

BuildStore

BuildStore was originally established to offer specialist mortgage brokerage and plot finding services but has also become a supplier to the self-build, conversion and renovation markets. As well as plots and mortgages, it now offers site insurance, 10-year structural warranty, supplies and materials and a ‘pick and choose’ menu of project support services.

BuildStore

National Custom and Self Build Association

The National Custom and Self-Build Association (NaCSBA) was set up by a network of companies and individuals with the common aim of promoting self-build and custom build as a form of housing delivery that can make a significant contribution to home building in the UK. It includes developers, architects, planners, financial and warranty providers, manufacturers, self-builders, community groups and local authorities. The Association is run by its members and is independent, relevant and practical, and operated on a not for profit basis.

National Custom and Self Build Association

Which - Mortgage Advisors

The consumer advisory group’s Mortgage Advisers have produced an interactive guide to self-build that identifies stages in the process and highlights various considerations.

Which - Mortgage Advisors

Community Land Trusts

These are local organisations set up and run by local people to develop and manage homes and other neighbourhood assets that will benefit the community. They create affordable homes that remain so in perpetuity.

Community Land Trusts

My Community - Community Right to Build

The Right to Build allows local communities to undertake small-scale, site-specific and community-led developments, including for new homes. To be approved, projects must have the support of over 50% of local people who voted in a community referendum and must meet some minimum requirements (e.g. development should in line with national and local planning policies).

My Community - Community Right to Build

Local Government Association and Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

PAS has commissioned this research to find out how local planning authorities (LPAs) are currently responding to the government's agenda for promoting the self-build and custom building sector of house building.

Local Government Association and Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

The Homes and Communities Agency

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) helps create communities by making more homes and business premises available to those residents and businesses that need them. They also regulate social housing providers in England. They own public land and sell it to house builders and others, sometimes after having undertaken necessary land remediation works. A Land Development and Disposal Plan (2016 – 2017 update) gives an idea of the way the HCA works to release land for development.

The Homes and Communities Agency

Note: Warwick District Council does not endorse or recommend any of the companies, services or specific guidance offered on external sites and will accept no responsibility for any losses, omissions, misrepresentations or errors that may occur as a result of using them.