More than 40,000 people sign up to Right to Build registers

It seems 2019 is shaping up to be a key year for custom and self build in England.

On 30th October, the first period of registration under the Right to Build will come to fruition and we’ll see how local authorities have met their responsibilities under the legislation. Those who have signed up for the scheme will be keen to see what provision for plots of land has been made.

NaCSBA has been chasing up councils, and in November it submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request to all 336 English planning authorities to see how things are progressing.

This includes determining how many people have joined since the last FOI request in 2017, which constituencies require a local connection test for applicants and if they are charging for the privilege of being on their list. The results have been interesting.

The good news is that numbers are up. Since 1 April 2016, over 40,000 people have joined, with 10,000 added last year.

The bad news is that the increase in no way reflects what we believe to be the underlying demand. There is suspicion that councils are adding red tape to keep numbers down.

When the Right To Build registers first opened, there were few restrictions on joining. Now over one in four have locality tests or fees.

Local connection tests are allowed, but must only be applied where there is strong justification – like in some of the London boroughs where demand is high and land is scarce, for example.

Charges are allowed on a cost-recovery basis but, as Build It has previously reported, these range from a £50 one-off fee, to £350 plus £150 for each subsequent year of registration.

There’s also an acute lack of publicity of the scheme. Local authorities should be promoting its existence but there’s little evidence of this beyond the occasional press release.