Self-build and custom housebuilding

Definitions

Self-build means building your own home. With self-build you can partly or wholly control the design, funding, planning and building of your home. This can involve building part or all your home yourself or alternatively hiring a contractor to do the same.

Self-builders can work as individuals or as a group. 

There are practical differences between self-build (you guide all decisions) and custom housebuilding (you choose between pre-made decisions), but as regulations do not differentiate between them, it means that from now on when we talk about self-build, we are talking about both. 

Benefits of self-build

It can offer an alternative to traditional home ownership and an opportunity to own a sustainable and high-quality designed home.

Additionally, most self-build projects could be exempt from Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements if they are small-scale, whilst also being eligible to be exempt from Community Infrastructure Levy when correctly following the process. However, it is still subject to council tax and any applicable Parish council charges.  

Local policy

Cheltenham Borough Council (CBC) is committed to supporting both affordable and market housing and is working to make it easier for more people to build their own home. You can base your projects on similar cases within the statistics section down below, and our climate change supplementary planning document (SPD) can inspire your sustainable design choices. 

As a local authority, we have a duty to keep a self-build register, but we currently do not have development plan policies requiring new housing development percentage for self and custom build plots. However, we are preparing a new development plan called the Strategic and Local Plan (SLP) that could potentially review whether to include this requirement.

Cheltenham Borough Council does not have a local connection test, therefore there is no order of priority within the register. Being in the register for a longer period of time does not equal a priority.

Here is a list of different information sources, which are independent from CBC: 

Register

The Self build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 places a statutory obligation on local authorities, such as Cheltenham Borough Council, to create a register of people, individually or grouped, who have expressed an interest in self-build and custom build projects.   

At this stage, you are not making any commitment - but by signing up you will help us find out more about the demand for these type of housing schemes in Cheltenham.

Registration also means that we will contact you if we are officially notified of a suitable plot of land becoming available for self-build. 

Fees

We do not currently charge a fee to enter applicants into the register. 

Eligibility to enter the registry

The requirements to be entered into the register are set by law, these are:

  1. Be aged 18 or over; 
  2. Be a British citizen, a national of an EEA State other than the United Kingdom, or a national of Switzerland; and 
  3. Want to acquire a serviced plot of land (a plot with connection to highway, electricity and to waste and drinkable water) in Cheltenham for your own self-build or custom housebuilding. 

Councils can choose to add a local connection test, which means prioritising certain applications that can demonstrate they have family, work or have lived within the area. Cheltenham Borough Council does not currently have a local connection test. 

Apply to the register

If you would like to register an interest in building your own home, please initially email the following information to [email protected]: 

  • Name, address and email address 
  • Title, age and nationality 
  • Connection to the intended self-build area 
  • Please state if your project is self-build or custom build 
  • Please state what you want to build and if you know how many bedrooms you would like.  
  • Please state where you wish to build the self-build project described above, please state the address, ward and postcode. 
  • Please state the finances you may have in place for this self-build project 
  • Please state what you have done to progress the self-build project to date 
  • Please state what additional help would be useful to progress the self-build project 

Information

If your information is complete, we will enter you into the register within 30 days by sending confirmation by email. We will get in contact if your information is incomplete or if we require further clarification.  

If you want us to amend or erase your records from the register, write to the same email shown above and we will do that within 30 days.

Sources of help, advice and funding

For help finding what type of self-build is best for you and your budget visit the self-build portal.

If you are looking for a building plot visit:

Statistics

As requested by central government in the planning practice guidance, we have collated statistics about the current applicants' preferences on the register. This information is to be used by our planning teams, developers and individuals to inform any developments coming forward, to meet the demand for self and custom build homes in Cheltenham. This will be updated every 12 months.