Response: Right to Build consultation

Custom build represents an excellent opportunity to increase the number of people who commission and build their own homes, which would in turn help increase diversity, competition and resilience in England's development industry, which has become increasingly concentrated in recent decades.

The government is currently considering how to make it easier for people to build or commission their own home. As part of this they are consulting on giving people a 'right to build', which will allow them to apply to their council for a plot of land to build a home on. These plots will be sold at market values, which are currently very high.

In order to make this a practical right to build, the affordability of suitable land must be addressed at the same time as the availability of suitable land is increased. Shelter's response therefore concentrates on the need to make development land for custom builders more affordable.