HAVING nowhere to call your own leaves one feeling in limbo, rootless and insecure. There is real meaning behind the saying “An Englishman’s home his castle”. It is the base where you can relax and follow your own interests, where families and friends can gather and from where you can step out into the world with confidence.

For those who have been waiting for a long time and have reached the top of the housing list it is devastating to find that the house you thought you were in line for has been allocated to someone from outside the local area who is on the Council’s prioritised list, no doubt someone deserving but even so it leaves you or your local family without a home of your own.

One of the major problems has been the lack of social housing since people have been able to buy their council house. The building of affordable houses for rent has been taken over by housing associations funded by central government. They have been able to build houses that are for rent in perpetuity. Those who rent can save to own up to half the value of the property and use the money to buy and move to another house, leaving the original house for another family in need. However, under the Housing and Planning Act 2016, Housing Associations will now have to sell homes to tenants at heavily discounted prices. Past experience shows that it has not been possible to replace all the homes for rent that are lost.

There are many varieties that come under the name of affordable houses but basically, social housing is rented and built by housing associations to a high eco standard whereas affordable housing is built by developers and can be bought and owned; they can also be self-built. The ones built by developers are often bought by buy-to-let landlords who then rent them out at high prices. Changes in recent budgets may help to make these buy-to-lets less attractive.

In Wiltshire, as in other parts of Britain, there has been a shortage of social and affordable houses for many years. The Councils are keenly aware of this. One of the problems for self-build is finding the land as the allocations made through the strategic plans are mostly taken up by developers. Neighbourhood Development Plans can stipulate that a certain number of affordable houses are needed but if and when they are built, control for allocating them remains with the Councils which are closely bound by EU regulations (for another two years at least) and have a list of those they have to give priority to, so it is usually the case that they do not all go to local people.

With the shortage of land outside the main allocations, one opportunity for self-build is on exception sites whereby up to 10 houses can be built outside a village or town development boundary. These can be built by developers but are exclusively for affordable houses. There are also windfall sites (sites that come up unexpectedly) where there are opportunities for self build, particularly on brownfield sites. On small plots for five houses or less there is no requirement to build affordable houses so will there be many applications for four bed executive homes? With self-build, which may be built by yourself or with the help of architects and builders, you can be sure that the house will be yours.

The numbers of new affordable houses in developments of over five dwellings are set out in Wiltshire’s Core Strategy to 2026. On the large sites, developers have to build 40% affordable houses in some areas and 30% in others. The obligation runs with the land so one would expect it to hold, but then there is the government’s viability clause which opens up the possibility of overriding the policies. Recent government changes also mean developers will not be forced to include a percentage of affordable houses in their developments. Instead, there will be starter homes. The Homes and Community Agency shows on its website that there is a housebuilders’ fund of £1bn to support the building of starter homes, a new £2bn loan fund and a £4.2m existing fund for affordable houses.

With long waiting lists, when will we see more social and affordable houses built to a high eco standard so those who live in them benefit from low energy bills and when will there be more land allocated for self-built houses of good individual design? One company in the north is concentrating on building affordable houses on brownfield sites and doing very well as that is what many people need.