In this article we are going to look the means by which some public money could be forthcoming to help you fund your build, and while for many this may be a distraction from the main task in hand of getting on with your self build for others where funding is more of a problem these options may be worthy exploring further.
If your build included an existing sub standard home, there may be some grants available through the local council towards some aspects of the improvements being made. What is actually available will vary from area to area. The major problem with this type of funding is often that they also want to stipulate other work that has to be done that may not fall within your own ideas and secondly the time to get these funds may require a unacceptable wait unless your project happens to be scheduled already at the point in the year when these grants are to be distributed. If you are modifying an exiting building a good starting point is to talk to local builders in the area as to what grants they feel may be available and there experience in them being available, and then go and talk to the council departments concerned to find out the timescale and qualifying criteria.
It is worth enquiring about any other local grants or aid available, some of which may be covered by the sections below.
At one time it was possible to turn a group of self builders into a housing association and through this access some grants towards providing social housing. Social housing or affordable housing being lower cost homes for those who cannot afford the normal properties of the area.
At an earlier point still social housing was council owned rented properties, but many of these have been sold of and no new ones are being built. Instead properties are built by housing associations that can get some grants (SHG social housing grant) from central government through a government quango called the housing association. Only those registered with the housing corporation can apply annually for allocations and self build groups can no longer register in their own.
For a self build group to have any chance of accessing these funds they would need to work with a housing association in their area, and the ownership model in most cases either that you have to build properties that are then owned by the association but can be let or leased to you at a reduced rate to allow for the input you have made.
Established housing associations are now known as registered social landlords. Many of these have grown considerably and are now sizable operations often spreading their wings with properties over a wide area and now a sizable business.
In 1990 housing associations received grants of up to 90% but today projects are likely to get less than half this. In addition each year only about 1 in 6 housing association gets any projects approved so will have a tendency to concentrate on their own rather than satellite projects, unless there is a great benefit to them, as in the case of them owning the resulting properties, having got them cheaper than they would normally. Over time the amount they can get towards projects is reducing making it necessary for them to look to fund projects in other ways.
In many areas there are funds available from a variety of sources towards improving the area, regeneration, towards environmental improvements and the like. In some areas there may also be larger European funding initiatives towards either regeneration, or in some other way improving the area.
As the range and scope for raising funds by these means is tied to the actual area in which you propose to build, the research to find these will need to start by looking at what might be available currently in the area.
You may have spotted that most organisations involved in eco housing, economic housing and the like has a lot of training courses, this is not in many cases because that is way they principally wanted to do, but a means of getting more funding. Varying from college linked funding to individual training grants, funds can often be accessed to wards training or retraining, towards specific types of training, and helping people get back to work after being unemployed. Expanding the concept of training can include going into schools to do talks and having visits to your site, which might appeal to some members of a group who are perhaps less able to become involved in actual building.
Rather than direct grants it may be that a different financial model for local group could be worth exploring. Ideas worth looking at could include Cooperatives, community finance initiatives, credit unions and local community build clubs. These may have the scope to raise more funds than you can.
This should not be confused with finding other means to allow you to borrow more or raise more funds, which does not involve public funds and is outside the area covered by this article.
While you are spending the time looking for these funds, rearranging the way the project is to run, forms of ownership, timescale, and more you are not actually getting on with the real task of self build, having taken the focus away from the main function can you can become lost in a minefield where you have constantly to swap and change your projects around increasing more and more problems areas and uncertainties. The biggest risk is that time will just pass and any cash you eventually do manage to get os les than the increase in costs that have occurred due to the delay.
Vat refund rules are very specific about who qualifies for a vat refund on their self build, so any change in model or ultimate ownership of the home you are building may well lose the ability to reclaim the Vat spent.
You should also be very careful that you do not give away future equity increases, or parts of it, by manipulating the ownership so as to be able to get grants.
It does make sense to look at what could be available in the area, what scope you might have to involve some other means of getting funds into the projects, but this research needs to be well defined and time limited, preferably running alongside other activities you are involved in. This should never be confused with looking at different methods of funding, which many will need to do and looking at how as a small group you can drastically cut costs.
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