Thousands of people and families in England will be supported onto the property ladder and given the opportunity to build their own home, with the launch of the government’s Help to Build scheme.
Thousands of people in England will be supported onto the property ladder and given the opportunity to build their own home, with the launch of the government’s Help to Build scheme, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities announced today (24 June 2022).
Backed by £150 million of government funding, Help to Build will enable people to overcome prohibitive mortgage costs to build a home that is tailored to their needs and in a community of their choice, with just a 5% deposit towards land and building costs.
Help to Build will open for applications on Monday, making self and custom-designed homes an option for those who don’t have Grand Designs size budgets. Most people are currently priced out of this option because it can require huge sums up front – the average for a self and custom build deposit is around 25% of land and building costs.
Help to Build will help level up communities by supporting young people and families into homeownership in places where they want to live. It builds on the success of other government schemes, including Help to Buy and Right to Buy, which have helped more than 765,000 people buy their own homes and will contribute to the one million homes being built by the end of this parliament.
The scheme can help people with specific living requirements, creating homes that are tailored to their needs, including those with disabilities or those who live with large families or elderly relatives.
Help to Build is also part of the government’s plan to boost the UK’s underdeveloped self and custom build sector, which will create jobs, increase the number of new homes and help grow the economy. The government has today published its response to Richard Bacon MP’s independent review of scaling up self and custom housebuilding, commissioned by the Prime Minister. It sets out how the sector could deliver 30,000-40,000 new homes a year.