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  • HPH339: What is the Housebuilder’s Bible? – with Mark Brinkley

    HPH339: What is the Housebuilder’s Bible? – with Mark Brinkley

    Mark Brinkley, author of the Housebuilder’s Bible, explains how his book can guide you towards building a better home. He also shares some of the themes that have cropped up while he’s been editing the latest edition.

    Interview with Mark Brinkley

    Back in the 1980s Mark Brinkley was a developer, buying plots and building houses or flats in almost the exact same location he finds himself in today. However when the chancellor at the time Nigel Lawson ended double mortgage tax relief there was a market crash and Mark had three plots on his books and was up to his eyeballs in debt.

    With three young children to support one option was to ride out the storm and build himself a house. It was this task that made him realise how different the process was when you’re not just creating a magnolia box to sell but instead trying to put your own expression into a place.

    That process made me realise that there was a need for a guidebook here because I was struggling, even though I was a professional builder.

    40 years of distilled knowledge

    Mark says it’s more of ‘a project’ than a book and part of its success is that it continually evolves.

    Mark has only ever written one book but it is now up to its 15th edition.

    The purpose of the book has not really changed over time. It’s a hand-holding exercise to explain the process and without trying to sell anything.

    When he put together the first edition he started to think his way through a project, writing down all the steps.

    I still try and make it as a great introduction to the whole idea of house-building in general and self build in particular.

    Mark says about 90% of it hangs together nicely but of course with so many options there are some loose ends which he adds to a section called the Apocrypha (just to continue the biblical theme!).

    Key stages in the process include:

    • Finding a plot
    • Engaging with the planners to see what’s possible (there can be limitations)
    • Working through the design stages
    • Sorting out finance (making sure you juggle your aspirations with your means)
    • Hiring a builder (most commonly through a tender process)
    • Deciding your role (will your architect supervise or could you project manage?)

    Beware the sales machine

    In 1994, when Mark released the first edition of the Housebuilder’s Bible there was little in the way of competition or other resources. In fact the internet was still in its infancy! These days you can probably find all the information online but Mark warns that it can often come laced with a product or service.

    I’m not selling any services, any materials, just good old-fashioned, hard-earned experience put down on a page.

    Mark is also keen that you decide what to do with the information. He will drop a few hints and highlight potential pitfalls but the final course of action is down to you.

    Building ‘simply’ is always an option

    The model house is a case study that Mark uses to drill down on costs. In each edition it is a different project but it acts as a reference point to show how you could build a simple house on a flat site with few complications to a comfortable but not fancy standard. From this Mark goes onto explain how you could increase the specification or do things differently.

    Don’t miss out on comfort and good ventilation

    Mark says that the green building agenda has been his abiding interest and passion ever since he started working in construction. His most recent self build project embraced the Passivhaus methodology.

    I put quite a lot of emphasis in the last edition about just how lovely it is to have a warm, comfortable, well ventilated house. It beats having a 24-inch TV screen or a £50,000 kitchen any day of the week! And just the pleasure of coming into a lovely warm space in the middle of winter is fantastic. Also having a well ventilated space because British homes, by and large, are not. They are stuffy as hell or they are leaky, and stuff like that, to me, seems common sense. For a lot of people it isn’t common sense.

    Mark believes that Wolfgang Feist and the whole Passivhaus movement has been a great help because there is a clear path of what you need to do and why… Follow all the principles and it will work.

    Installing a gas boiler was a mistake

    One transition that has been noted in the recent editions of the Housebuilder’s Bible is the move away from burning fossil fuels for heating, perhaps opting for a renewable source (such as a heat pump) instead.

    It was around 2016/2017 when Mark was considering the options for his home and the general thinking at the time was that if you built a high performance home and put in a gas boiler you would only be using a very small amount of gas. While this is true, installing a gas boiler is a decision that still irks Mark. Today the zero carbon agenda has moved on and the default has become renewables.

    Find out more about Mark’s project. He takes us through it all in The Hub.

    With every edition the numbers are brought up to date

    When it comes to building a house everyone wants to get a firm grip on costs. Much of the information in the Housebuilder’s Bible will only change subtly between editions but costs are something that have changed dramatically.

    The inflation rate has gone up 8% per year

    Mark compared the model house from the 11th edition (in 2015) with the model house in the current edition (2023) and he discovered there has been a phenomenal increase.

    That’s an inflation rate of 8% a year in building when the published national inflation rate was – for a long time – virtually zero.

    Some prices have gone up and some products have changed

    The price increases are not across the board. Mark says that timber is a good example. It doubled in price but the UK imported a lot of timber from Russia and so when they invaded the Ukraine, that supply line closed overnight.

    Some finished materials, such as kitchens and bathrooms, or paint are largely unchanged. Mark wonders whether there were huge profit margins before and that they may have eaten into them a bit.

    Other tricks to watch out for include the products themselves changing. For example, plasterboard might have remained at £5 per sheet between the 1950s and the 1990s. However, the specification was going down over time.

    By the time they’d got an aerated gypsum in there it was like having a sheet of newspaper in terms of soundproofing. So the standards were getting lower. But lo and behold, the headline price is exactly the same.

    Self build is often the preserve of the wealthy

    Mark suggests that house-building in places like the South East has gone upmarket. There are fewer self builds than 10 years ago yet the amount of money spent on them has gone up significantly. While self build can be a route onto the housing ladder with help from family members in the trade, etc. it is only possible in places where land is plentiful and affordable (such as parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland).

    Even Graven Hill is dividing into two distinct markets

    Graven Hill is a flagship ‘self build and custom build community’ which aims to diversify the delivery options giving more people the opportunity to build or customise a house. However, as Mark reads it, the self builds are all grand designs!

    The houses up on the hill, the self builds, are actually very grand houses. They’re all completely different, chaotic in the great sort of Dutch self build… Lower down the hill we’ve got the custom builds and they look much like you’d see on a developer house anywhere in the country.

    Plan well to avoid running out of money

    When you’re building or renovating it can seem like the perfect opportunity to put all your fancy ideas in place but it is important to be realistic.

    Mark shares an example of a neighbour who is preparing for a green retrofit and has had to work through three iterations, each time simplifying the scheme to reduce costs and fall within the budget. So it’s imperative to cut you cloth accordingly.

    This may be a hard pill to swallow but it beats the alternative of plunging head first into the build and then discovering halfway through that you can’t finish it.

    Stretching out the project is about the only way to continue when funds are dwindling

    While you can save a bit of money here and there, there is no magical bullet (or wonderful plumber who’s half the price of all the others!) so when you are out of funds you have to claw your way back, working to fund the next stages. Self-builders can add years to their build programme. Do not think this is an easy option because there will be a big emotional toll.

    Hiring a quantity surveyor is money well spent

    One tip Mark has is to make sure you get a professional to work out what it is going to cost.

    We hired a quantity surveyor, despite the fact that I write a book that has building costs at the centre of it. Even I get nervous when I see a set of plans and think, how much is it going to cost? You know, can I estimate it to the nearest £100,000 let alone to the nearest £5000.

    A self build industry has emerged

    One thing that has changed as Mark has released his various editions of The Housebuilder’s Bible is the support industry around self build.

    A really interesting place to go is the National Self Build and Renovation Centre in Swindon which is now about 20 years old and it’s got better and better and better… Another good place to go to is the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth in North Wales. It’s always a fascinating place to visit, full of ideas and a bit more radical than the one in Swindon, but it’s an eye-opener.

    Mark also mentions the Self Build Education House at Graven Hill.

    Online, tools like Pinterest make gathering ideas for mood board easy.

    Find out more

    Buy the Housebuilder’s Bible

    Follow Mark Brinkley on Twitter

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of this episode.

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  • HPH216 : Do self builds get any easier for a seasoned pro? – with Mark Brinkley

    HPH216 : Do self builds get any easier for a seasoned pro? – with Mark Brinkley

    With decades growing his knowledge of self-building, Mark Brinkley shares some of the surprises, challenges and joys involved.

    Interview with Mark Brinkley

    Mark Brinkley has been immersed in the world of self builds and renovations since the early 1980s, working firstly as part of a group who were building and renovating properties in and around Cambridge, before completing his first self build in the 90s. In the years since then he has been writing up this knowledge in articles and the phenomenally popular Housebuilder’s Bible.

    For the last 18 months, and 25 years after his first, he has been concentrating on his second self build.

    Have a go and see what happens!

    This was the philosophy Mark and his companions started out using. Rather than coming to the construction industry from a traditional route of apprenticeships, they each turned their hands to the various trades with a ‘give it a go’ approach, learning on the job and taking courses. The one trade they each attempted but decided they should leave to the experts was plastering!

    Mark considers themselves to have been “gifted amateurs,” rather than as good a builders as they probably thought they were at the time!

    Being the client was a bigger job than anticipated

    Having accumulated building plots thinking that he and his partner would become property developers, the housing market downturn in 1991/92 left him in a position where, in order to gain more space for his family, he had to build on one of those plots for himself. Mark found all the decision making incredibly taxing, with the realisation of what a big job being the client is. While there were textbooks on how to build a house, what he couldn’t find was guidance on what you should put into a house and what makes a good house. The subsequent success of his book, Housebuilder’s Bible, led him to concentrate entirely on his writing.

    “I’ve spent years going around interviewing people, visiting businesses and looking at houses, but actually doing the process, I’d forgotten what a lot of hard work it is and how taxing it is. Even with this whole lifetime’s worth of knowledge about what you can and can’t put in a house.”

    It was important to challenge themselves with their second self build

    Together with his architect, Mark has wanted to challenge themselves with this build and experiment with new techniques and materials, like the metal roofing and external cladding. Luckily the team of tradespeople working with him have been up to the task, and engaged and enthusiastic in their undertaking of it.

    The street view was a key element of the design

    The design for this build went through three or four iterations and liaising with the planners, conservation officer, and keeping neighbours on side, before coming to a final design they were happy with. What was important to Mark was the street view and trying to create a wow factor, with the amenity of the building being considered later.

    The old warehouse that was originally on the site was an oblong box with a pitched roof. Mark’s build covers the same footprint, just with a little extra height. It also probably would have had a pitched roof, but neighbour’s complaints that they wouldn’t be able to see the chimneys on the other side of the house meant they had to work through a complicated process of giving it a flattened profile.

    Theirs is a tight site with no space around it, so all materials have had to be kept either in the house or garden. If work needs doing on one room, it means moving everything out to another room or somewhere else. This has caused challenges when it comes to trying to find things!

    “One of the old sayings is that it’s the biggest shopping trip of your life. It’s also the biggest cleaning session of your life!”

    Despite huge amounts of pre-planning, Mark and Mandy have remained open to change and been flexible about the decision making as they go along. One example of this has been with the living room ceiling. Originally drawn as a plastered ceiling, they decided they would prefer something more interesting and have been experimenting with lime-washed Douglas Fir. With the leftover planks they have been making slatted shelves for the airing cupboard.

    At the time of the interview Mark and Mandy had only moved in a few days earlier, so it will take a while before they get to grips with and know how effective their solar panels will be at providing sufficient electricity and hot water for the house. Using PVs seemed sensible, rather than packing in more insulation and having even smaller rooms.

    Being an urban build has presented extra challenges, with consideration about traffic management, getting skips and cranes in and out and deliveries blocking roads.

    Keep a very careful eye on spending

    On this project Mark is acting as the builder, as a service company with accounts at various builders’ merchants. Some of the big subcontracts, like the roofing, he has put out to tender, but others are a case of searching for suppliers, building a relationship with them and negotiating on price.

    Often the price will be based on a day rate, which Mark has always found to work well and feels has not been taken advantage of.

    “If you do it on a price, you could end up arguing about the extras, this changed and that changed. I want the freedom to come in and make changes.”

    To a certain extent, Mark is a believer in the saying that if you’re on time, you’re on budget. He is currently a little over-time and a little over-budget. He estimates his overspend is likely to be around 5%, which will come from within their contingency sum.

    Mark recommends starting out with a generous budget and keeping on top of spending. His meticulous spreadsheet of costs currently extends to nearly 600 rows of data!

    More options available has made decision making more complicated

    Mark doesn’t believe that the actual process of building has changed much since Victorian times, with people getting involved and solving problems. What has surprised him though is the amount of red tape that has been introduced in the last 25 years, with the planning process being much more time consuming and every job being riddled with planning conditions.

    Mark finds that the range of options available to him now is phenomenally larger and more complicated than it was back in the 90s. Even with the seemingly simple task of selecting light switches there are dozens of different styles to choose from.

    “You actually get fatigued by these ridiculous decisions you’ve got to make, when actually all you want is a functioning house.”

    Building this house has, Mark says, taught him how little he knows:

    “I do know a lot about it, but without having been doing it continually for twenty years, you get a very different perspective commenting on it, writing it and interviewing people. There’s nothing quite like doing it to realise you’re at the cutting edge. And also, finding out where the bounds of your knowledge are.”

    Mark does find that the process of self build takes over your life, what with employing people on a daily rate and wanting to make sure the money is spent properly, to having many a sleepless night!

    Thankfully he has been keeping plenty of notes throughout this project and at some point will look to pass on this knowledge with a new edition of the Housebuilder’s Bible.

    Find out more

    Visit Mark Brinkley’s blog

    Follow Mark Brinkley on Twitter

    Listen to Mark’s House Planning Help podcast about how self build in the UK compares to Germany

    Listen to Mark’s House Planning Help podcast about putting together a budget

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Mark Brinkley.

    The Hub update

    Our video case study at Buckinghamshire Passivhaus is coming towards the end, but this month we have a new episode about plastering the interior and how the brick slips will be attached.

    We also have a new course on developing house designs.

    And our guest on this month’s progress call is Adam Dadeby from Luft MVHR.

    If you’re not yet a member then find out how to become one at houseplanninghelp.com/join.

    Please connect with me

  • HPH115 : How to budget for a house build – with Mark Brinkley

    HPH115 : How to budget for a house build – with Mark Brinkley

    Mark Brinkley, author of the Housebuilder’s Bible, talks about his new self build project and shares his experience of putting a budget together.

    Mark Brinkley 1

    Interview with Mark Brinkley

    Mark Brinkley is a freelance writer and author of the Housebuilder’s Bible – a number one bestseller on Amazon. We first spoke to Mark back in 2013 about how self build in the UK compares to Germany. With another project currently underway, we’re talking to Mark again, this time about how to put a budget together, and how to stick to it.

    Urban building plots can be hard to find

    Mark has purchased a plot in a conservation area of Cambridge, albeit he points out, not the posh part of the city! It is an old warehouse in a street of Victorian houses, and as such a bit of an anomaly. It is fairly impractical as a warehouse and not in a good location to be a commercial property so Mark doesn’t foresee there being too many planning issues with building a house there instead.

    Current warehouse on the plot
    Current warehouse on the plot

    Up against around 50 other bidders he was successful with his speculative bid of approximately 20% over the asking price, and Mark comments that any potential development profit from the project has gone to the landowner!

    Logistically it’s a challenging site, being on a one-way street that’s a bit of a rat-run, and with no side access. There are going to be traffic, loading, craning and storage issues to contend with.

    Current street scene
    Current street scene

    Proposed new dwelling
    Proposed new dwelling

    The process is terrifying!

    Despite Mark’s 20 years of writing about how to build houses, he finds the process of actually going through the self build process again terrifying! The process is so different from when you buy an existing house, particularly a new build, where the only considerations might be choosing paint colours and tiles. He explains that: “You’ve got to invest yourself in it, you’ve got to immerse yourself in it.” And even with the best knowledge bank in the world you still can’t really determine how much it’s all going to cost, because it’s so driven by market conditions.

    It’s a cash buyer’s market

    Mark knew how much money he and his partner had available to put into the project, with a contingency factored in from the outset. Both being over 60 they were keen to build mortgage free if possible. His partner had sold her house, with the money sitting in income bonds which could be accessed quickly.

    The landowner insisted that completion take place within the unusually short time of just 10 days. Money that Mark had from a previous house sale a few years earlier had been sitting in bonds and shares, so Mark spent the 10 days making the cash available in order to meet the deadline. For a self build in an area that has a competitive property market, being a cash buyer and not having to borrow to raise funds is a huge advantage.

    Use basic cost tables as a starting point

    By looking at various property websites you can ascertain what a finished house in that street is likely to sell for, and use that to work back from its finished value – i.e. estimate roughly what it will cost to build and roughly what you’d spend on the plot.

    “So in a way, right from the outset, you don’t think of it as a developer. You think of it as this is what we need to secure this plot and then we figure out how much we can build a house, how big a house we can build, what we can build with our budget. So it’s sort of almost back to front really. It’s not the classic developer’s calculation that everything drives the plot price down.”

    As a starting point, Mark suggests looking at the basic cost tables that you can find from RICS and in property magazines, although he is finding that these are actually at the low end of expectations as his costs so far have been coming back far higher than expected. And even within a cost per m2 price bracket, Mark points out the range in the sizes of buildings produced can be vast.

    Mark recommends using the cost tables to get to the planning application stage, thinking simply in terms of does it fulfil the criteria of what’s wanted, does it look elegant, will it be energy efficient, and will the neighbours accept it. After that stage he suggests turning to an itemised spreadsheet, filling it out in more detail and building up the budget. Mark himself is currently at this point and is only now starting to think about the build method and the construction materials that are going to be used.

    A half built house is probably worth less than an empty plot!

    The work needs to be broken down logically into packages of what work needs doing, in what order and how much it’s going to cost.

    Once the prices start coming back, if they turn out to be beyond your means, or you have lost heart, then you still have the option to sell the plot with planning permission on it. What you don’t want to do is start building and then try and sell half way through.

    You can control the cost outcome of elective extras

    While there are some elements of the build where you have limited control over costs – such as demolition, groundworks, and building the structure of the house – there are ‘elective extras’ where you can actually have control of the cost outcome. Mark uses the example of a kitchen, whereby the functionality is the same whether you spend £3,000 or £30,000, but you do actually have quite a lot of control over the amount you choose to spend.

    While some constraints might be imposed, either by the site itself or by planners determining material choice, other elective extras might give you self-imposed constraints. An example of this might be in wanting to build to the Passivhaus standard there might be additional costs for joinery, triple glazed windows etc.

    Build to the neighbourhood

    With so few urban sites available, sometimes it might be necessary to just build to what’s there already. If you were to come across a house on a very expensive street, you might find that building a house of 120m2 would leave you spending way over the odds on the site, when in fact the site might be demanding a house of 200m2+. In this example of only wanting to build a small house, spending so much money for the plot would be pouring money down the drain because the development criteria suggests you should be building something in keeping with the neighbours.

    And vice versa, if you want to build a 250m2 house that’s going to be worth £1,000,000, then you’re unlikely to achieve that on a plot in a street of £300,000 houses.

    Budget for the entire project, not just the house

    The first rule of sticking to a budget, is making sure you make a budget in the first place! And always factor in a contingency, probably of 10% or more.

    Always ensure you include items which might not immediately seem obvious to include as they’re not necessarily part of the house itself. Don’t ignore fencing, outbuildings, garages, paving etc. In Mark’s case, his plot doesn’t have rear access so they will need to start by building a shed in the back garden (which can be used as a site hut too).

    Also be careful if you’re working off cost tables, as the price per square metre doesn’t include gardens, garages, outbuildings and other things. The square metre rate also doesn’t take into account development costs, such as installing services, running drains, fencing paving etc. In order to make a back garden plot serviceable you may need to spend £30,000 or more. This would be a development cost, and not a build cost.

    Try to gather costs from whatever sources you can, be they magazines, books, internet etc. Mark also recommends using a quantity surveyor. As he puts it: “Every pound spent at the beginning saves £5 at the end!”

    Keep on top of the spreadsheets, so you know right from the outset if you’re going over budget, instead of leaving it too late and running out of money before you can finish.

    “I wish there was a short, pithy way of saying it, but it’s actually a lot of detailed accounts work that goes into a) making the budget in the first place, and b) sticking to it.”

    Find out more

    Follow Mark Brinkley on Twitter

    Read Mark’s blog

    Housebuilders Bible

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Mark Brinkley.

    House Planning Help at Ecobuild

    We’re going to be having a House Planning Help meet-up at Ecobuild this year, on Tuesday 8th March.  Alex Baines, who we’re featuring in The Hub, will also be there and answering your questions and telling us how progress on his Long Barrow project is going. If you’re going to be heading to Ecobuild, we’d love you to come and say hello!

    Please connect with me

  • HPH019 : How Does Self Build in the UK Compare to Germany? – with Mark Brinkley, Author of The Housebuilder’s Bible

    HPH019 : How Does Self Build in the UK Compare to Germany? – with Mark Brinkley, Author of The Housebuilder’s Bible

    Mark Brinkley considers why the UK has the smallest proportion of self build across Europe and what changes might need to occur if we wanted to adjust the balance. Mark shares why Germany’s system is more likely to lead to higher standards and communities that embrace development.

    Mark-Brinkley

    Interview with Mark Brinkley

    Mark has been involved in construction for over 30 years, initially as a site carpenter and then doing his own developments of barns and new builds. In the 90s he decided to write about the process and produced The Housebuilder’s Bible, which has been a popular resource for people wanting to find out about the practicalities of building a house. It’s revised every two years and is approaching its 10th edition.

    Fashions and Regulations Change The Most Through The Years

    Mark includes prices in his book and says that, funnily enough, they don’t vary that much – the things that really change are people’s tastes and also the regulations. Incrementally there are more codes, and changes to building regulations and planning. He concludes that it seems to get more complicated!

    Much More Choice Now

    In the 80s and 90s there were straightforward choices, such as choosing between timber frame or brick and block, but now there are many options. Mark talks about using Boulton and Paul windows in every house in the early days, whereas now there’s a huge selection from which to choose. Not only are products available from different countries, but they perform to different standards.

    Self Builders Are Likely to Make Mistakes

    Mark praises self builders for their enthusiasm and ability to learn, often picking up things that people in the trade close their minds to. However, this can lead to taking on ideas that look good on paper but turn out to be very difficult in practice.

    Building Your House is Like Choosing a Holiday Abroad!

    Mark talks about compromises and having to jump one way. It’s like going to Italy for a week! If you take in Venice and Rome, it means you miss Sienna and Bologna and Naples, and all the other good things. Perhaps at the end of the holiday you’ll end up thinking that you’ve just scraped the surface.

    The People You Meet Have a Major Influence on The House You Build

    Mark suggests that building a house is a people business. The people with whom you get on are generally those who guide you. Whether that is actually a good approach or not is impossible to know. Very often connections are made at shows or you meet people or friends that have done it. This subtle influence can often have a major impact on the project.

    Self Build Accounts For a Tiny Amount of UK Housing

    Over the last few years Mark has been working with Ted Stevens and NaSBA to help promote self build in the UK. While 10-15% of UK houses are self built, in many European countries that figure is around 50%. In fact, this approach is so common that they don’t even refer to it as being self build, it’s just how they build houses!

    Self Build Graph

    Huge Uplift in Value of Agricultural Land in UK, if Marked for Development

    In the UK, the system sees the land owner and their agent (usually a volume house builder) promote schemes to the council. The council arbitrates, giving a yes or no. If it goes ahead then they try to claw back as much as they can in tax from the deals. Subsequently there is a huge uplift between the value of agricultural land, which is worth a few thousand pounds an acre, and the land now for house building, which could be worth a million pounds an acre.

    UK Farmer’s Windfall Not Popular with Villagers

    Any British farmer that can sell off a field as a building plot effectively wins the lottery! The rest of the village feels cut off from this process and also perceive the farmer as being greedy. This is where the acronym NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) comes into play. What happens in Germany is completely different.

    German Councils Buy Land From Farmers

    In Germany, the councils almost have a system of compulsory purchase. Once land is identified, the farmer gets a small premium for losing it and then the council divides it up into serviced plots. These are then sold to local people as a priority.

    German Custom Builders Commission Local Companies for Their Builds

    The owner of each serviced plot will visit a show house village to choose exactly what he or she wants. This creates competition between the 150 (often family-run) custom home builders, who each only deliver a few hundred homes a year. This competition also keeps building standards high.  So, there’s a lot more choice for the person who wants to build: from choosing the plot to deciding exactly what goes on it.

    British Council’s Used to Be More Involved

    Mark gives an example of a Cambridge development from the 1930s where the council actually laid out the street and then self builders and small local developers took it from there. Somehow through the years the British system has changed. The council’s have now become box tickers and tax collectors. Their interest is in the number of units, the road infrastructure and the schools, etc.

    Sustainability is a Benefit of High Density Housing

    While the UK’s new housing has a reputation for being the smallest in Europe, with little or no gardens, it is a more sustainable situation! Towns don’t tend to sprawl as much, brown field sites are developed and people can walk to local amenities. But does the German’s looser, more organic approach actually create better places to live?

    Low Density Housing Can be More Biodiverse

    There’s a lot of evidence that a house with a big garden has a lot more biodiversity in it than a field that it might have replaced. This is a view that is rarely considered in the UK. Instead, development gets equated to more countryside going under concrete!

    Wind Farm Profits Shared in Germany

    The attitude to wind farms is also very different in Germany. While 99% of the UK’s population don’t want wind turbines near them, the Germany system creates an incentive. Profits from the wind turbines are shared with the village as well as the people putting the scheme forward.

    The UK Land Paradox

    Although land is nominally privately owned, it is controlled by the council, sometimes by the state, and affected by the neighbours! It’s not quite a free market and it’s not quite state controlled.

    Boom and Bust Less Likely in Germany Due to Intervention

    Driven by the free market in the UK, we are less likely to interfere in the land. Paradoxically we’ve ended up with all the deals being done with big landowners and developers, and the little guys getting cut out of the system. Whereas the Germans have been far more interventionist they have ended up with a freer market and a much better functioning market! They don’t have the huge boom and bust of the UK housing market. They build better homes and seem to satisfy what people want.

    Most German Spec Building is in Cities

    The only spec building that goes on in Germany is when apartments are constructed in cities. Clearly the custom build model would not work for a complex structure like this. Almost everything out in the small towns and the countryside is just done by individuals working with all these house building companies.

    Neighbourly Disputes Less Likely in Germany

    Whereas British councils invite objections from neighbours, in Germany you’re expected to resolve any issues with your neighbours face to face. You must go around to your neighbours and talk it through. British culture seems to have developed an adversarial approach, particularly when it comes to planning!

    Changing Systems in the UK Would be Hard

    Mark likens the prospect of changing the UK system to turning around a super tanker – it couldn’t happen overnight. The industry doesn’t exist. It would take years of much more conciliatory planning for the confidence to build up for these businesses. Of course, there’s no reason why it couldn’t happen in theory.

    Factory Building Approach Risky in UK’s Market

    While it is clear that factory building can continue in all weathers and is much more efficient, it hasn’t really ever taken off in the UK. There’s more of it in self build than there is in mainstream building. Part of the concern is due to the huge capital investment needed. If the market has a steady demand then that is one thing, but the UK’s boom and bust extremes make it a realistic that you could go out of business in the bad times.

    For Change to Occur Councils Need to be More Interventionist

    UK councils have to stop being frightened of the way the system is at the moment and become much more interventionist. Some councils are taking on board the idea that land should be retained for self builders. Mark talks about some great examples in Shropshire, where they’re even including self build in their affordable housing quota so they can actually bring forward schemes that they know developers aren’t going to get into.

    Government Blind to How Much Spec Build There is

    While the UK government have supported the idea of creating more self build opportunities, Mark’s closing thoughts are that the government doesn’t see the reverse of the situation. To get more self build will mean a reduction in the amount of spec build. As spec builders have long arms in deep pockets and are very effective lobbyists, it’s hard to see them giving up their grip on the system as it now exists.

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