Right to build

From HousingWiki

Right to Build is a concept supporting the right of citizens and property owners to build housing for themselves. 

Germany

A right to build is said to be expressed in the German Basic Law (i.e. Constitution). 

"the German constitution contains an explicit ‘right-to-build’ clause. According to The Policy Exchange:

…this “means that everyone is entitled to a permission to build on his or her property as long as there is no explicit legal rule against it.
…if the proposed building fits into the plan, permission has to be granted and if the local authorities deny it then a court will enforce it… Although there is very close control of what can be built on any site, provided it meets the requirements of the master plan, a developer just can get on and build new housing without seeking development permission.

Most importantly, the local governments that control the planning process have a direct financial incentive to provide land for housing, since they receive grants based on the number of inhabitants. Therefore, encouraging development is an important way for local politicians to increase their budgets."
  - [van Onselen 2011].

 

Alastair Parvin et al project

Alastair Parvin et al project and book ca.2011.

"If we are serious about designing high quality, sustainable and affordable housing, we need to radically change who procures it: scaling-up self-build is a key project for the next decade.

"In some ways, it shouldn’t be such a great challenge. Driven largely by the web, we have seen the rise of the ‘prosumer’ in almost every other sector of society. Even in housebuilding, the UK is unusual in that only 12-15% of supply is self-build. In much of Europe it makes up more than half. Our research project, A Right to Build, looked at the challenge, explored the current state of the industry, de-bunked common myths, and outlined the shape of a mass self-build industry as a way forward for the UK. Learning from experts and pioneers, it identified the barriers which hold back all but the relatively wealthy and skilled ‘grand designers’ who build today, and speculated on future models of procurement, planning, finance and construction that could unlock the long tail of users who want to buy a plot of land and procure their own house."
- [Parvin 2013]
 

UK "self build" sector

loosely equivalent to what is US is called "custom homebuilding." I.e. a person acquiring a land lot and overseeing a builder to build a house on it. 

Recent UK govt "Right to Build" initiatives

 

 

References

 

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