MARTIN FIELD
CREATING COMMUNITY-LED AND SELF-BUILD HOMES
A Guide to Collaborative Practice in the UK
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by
Policy Press
University of Bristol
1-9 Old Park Hill
Bristol
BS2 8BB
UK
t: +44 (0)117 954 5940
© Policy Press 2020
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4473-4439-1 paperback
ISBN 978-1-4473-4441-4 ePub
ISBN 978-1-4473-4440-7 ePdf
The right of Martin Field to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of Policy Press.
The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the author and not of the University of Bristol or Policy Press. The University of Bristol and Policy Press disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any material published in this publication.
Policy Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race, disability, age and sexuality.
Cover design by Policy Press
Front cover image: iStock
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CMP, Poole
Policy Press uses environmentally responsible print partners
Contents
List of figure and tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction: people providing homes for themselves in the UK
oneIdentifying motivation at the grassroots
twoModels and practice
2.1Self-build and custom-build housing
2.2Co-operatives, ‘mutuals’ and tenant management bodies
2.3Community land trusts and development trusts
2.4Self-help housing and empty dwellings
2.5Cohousing neighbourhoods
2.6Eco-housing, ‘low-impact’ settlements and ecovillages
2.7‘Intentional communities’ and living in groups
2.8Homes to travel with
2.9Connecting motivations and practice
threeEnabling the creation of local homes: accountability or affordability?
fourLearning from Europe: building at larger scales
fiveEvaluating impact in a ‘broken market’
sixFinal remarks
Appendix: research into statutory strategies to help collaborative housing projects
Index
Figure and tables
Figure
3.1Challenges to self-builders
Tables
1.1Key drivers behind local people creating their own homes in the UK
2.1Models of community-led and self-organised housing practice
2.2Connecting motivations to models of practice
2.3Examples of complementary community-led motivations
3.1 (a–e)Forms of local authority policies to support collaborative housing projects
5.1Benchmarks for assessing the impact of community-led housing projects
A.1The identification of community-based housing within public sector policies
This ‘Policy and Practice’ publication explores the varieties and diversity in how local people have been engaging with housing and neighbourhood initiatives across the UK.
The source material has principally been gained from engagement and collaboration with a substantial range of local and community-centred practices over many years. A huge debt is acknowledged to them all and to the ongoing work of the regional and national bodies within the community-led housing sector. If the details provided on different forms of collaborative housing include some lengthy lists, this is deliberately to reflect on the richness now found within this sector that is too easily overlooked when only a brief example or two are given attention.
All website information was operational at the time the work was published, however flows of information are always dynamic and links will need to be checked accordingly. All tables and figures are from the author’s own work, except Figure 3.1, used under common licence.
My thanks are due to Policy Press for their patience in looking through the different versions of this work. The overall ideas started out as something far more extensive and ambitious but have been better served by the style required in the ‘Short’ series.
And a special thank you to Dinah and to John for their faith in me.
Introduction: people providing homes for themselves in the UK
This is a book about people in the UK taking charge of their own homes. At a time when there is so much dissatisfaction with the kinds of homes (and their condition) available for sale or rent in the UK, the publication sets out to explain the ways people have wished to house themselves, in places of their own choosing and their own designs.
The following chapters provide a framework to analyse what people have been doing in a wide variety of activities – as individuals, in groups, or on behalf of their local communities – to create homes that can satisfy many kinds of ambition:
Source: © M. Field 2019
The UK’s housing sector is increasingly full of uncertainties regarding how people can find and maintain a satisfactory home in which they can thrive. Headline reports routinely note the diminishing control many households have on their domestic circumstances – fewer and fewer households in owner-occupation; rising numbers forced to live in accommodation provided by an uncompromising private rented sector; and prolonged time spent by young adults living in the parental home.
There are also competing debates at national and international levels on the ends to which modern housing provision could or should be tailored – whether its primary