Obtaining the right piece of land at the right price is the one of the most difficult hurdles in doing a self build.

Ecomotive has been working alongside central government, the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and local authorities to find ways of providing land at affordable rates for self build.

Exciting changes are afoot... As a direct result of our work through the National Self Build Association, the Government Industry Self Build Working Group published a report in July 2011 which recommended that local authorities should allocate land to group self build projects. The Community Right to Build and Community Right to Buy set out in the new Localism Bill should also provide more opportunities for groups of people to buy land together. And the Homes and Communities Agency have already started to provide plots of land for self build as part of larger housing developments and have also been working with Community Land Trusts, such as on the Cashes Green site in Gloucestershire. 

Ecomotive has also been working to develop models that will enable people to buy self build plots with minimal upfront costs. For example, we have been working with Bristol CLT to find ways of making affordable self-finish homes available as part of a community land trust-led development.  

If you would further information please contact us.

What is a sustainable home?

A sustainable home is one that can be built and lived in with no negative impacts on the environment and the people living around it. Ideally we should aim for our homes to make a positive contribution to improving the world around us.

There are various different sustainability standards for housing - some (like Building Regulations) are compulsory and others (like Code for Sustainable Homes) are currently more optional.  

Ecomotive's experience with creating the community self build project at Ashley Vale shows that sustainability must start from the bottom up - i.e. with the people who are designing and living in the homes. A sustainable community is one that supports and encourages the residents and visitors to live in a way that protects and enhances the environment and creates a strong and resilient community where people are not isolated from each other.

People who build their own homes tend to think carefully about making a home that is well designed and meets their own needs. Self build homes are therefore generally "greener" than the majority of developer-built homes. We believe that self build and self finish are idea ways of creating more sustainable homes and communities. 

When thinking about sustainability in designing a home, there are a number of different things to consider: 

Sense of place

A comfortable and enjoyable place to be. A place which can accomodate changes in life patterns and work choices. A place which can be easily modified in the future to meet your changing needs or those of future residents. For group self build projects, creating physical spaces for people to meet, both indoor and outdoor, as well as social structures that facilitate working together and sharing skills, information and knowledge.

Minimising energy use

Through passive solar design, high levels of insulation beyond building regulations, passive ventilation. Reducing embodied energy of materials through local sourcing and material choice.

Resource Use

Consider the environmental impact of materials to be used. Recycling and reuse of materials, tools, knowledge.

Onsite harvesting of resources

Food growing, renewable energy production, rainwater harvesting, working from home.

For further information on sustainable housing assessment see the BRE website at www.bre.co.uk/sustainable and the Code for Sustainable Homes at www.communities.gov.uk/thecode.

I work five days a week. How am I going to build my own home?

Yep, that's a difficult one, but not impossible, there are still evenings and weekends.....your social life may go out the window (unless you can drag all your friends to your build, and generally their enthusiam wears off a long time before yours!)

It's that three way triangle: TIME : COST : QUALITY. Each factor influences the others: if time is a major constraint, then you may need to get contractors in (increased cost) and the cost of the contractor may influence the quality of the work.

You also need to put a value to your time. Can you cover your time within your budget?

Having said that, people do manage to work a five day week and do most of the building work themselves. It helps if you can live on-site or nearby, and have neighbours who will tolerate hammering on a Sunday morning! 

There is a huge amount of information out there to help improve your knowledge.....
Maybe too much.

There are many advisory bodies which will be able to point you in the right direction, if they can not help you themselves.

The hard bit is accumulating all the information you need at the beginning to help you make decisions on the design and construction of your home. Make sure you research each area of the build, and see as many examples as you can of homes which interest you. There are some amazing examples of sustainable homes, books, magazines, advice centres.

If you spend more time planning, the less time you will be messing about on the build.

How can I build a home? I've never picked up a hammer before.

You don’t have to build the whole house yourself. Self build is more about taking control of the development of the home you want to live in. The more work you do yourself, the less you are paying on contractors and builders. However you can contract in everyone, and not get a finger dirty, which will cost more, but you will have at least been involved in the development of your home, and influenced what it is going to be like. If you are careful with who you get involved and you are considerate over the design of your building, you can end up with a home which is more sustainable and cheaper than if you were to buy a home already built.

You can still build it all yourself. Gaining skills through attending courses, helping on other builds, practising, reading books, and talking to others. There may be a sharp learning curve, but there are many examples of success.

Can I build a sustainable home for less than buying a ready made house?

Well, there are many factors, but with the huge inflation in the housing market, it is almost impossible to buy a home without indebting yourself to a life long mortgage. If land costs could be resolved, the cost of building a sustainble home is fraction of the cost of buying an existing non-sustainable home.

Buying land and building a house takes a big chunk of money. If you don't have that money ready then you need to find a way of funding the project.

If you need to borrow money, there are many banks and building societies which now support self build projects. They will generally provide finance on a stage basis, and will only provide a percentage of the total build cost. So you will need to have a little bit to get going, at least 5%.