Introduction

Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) are required to create and keep a register of those interested in self-build and custom house-building projects under the Self and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015.

Through the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding (Register) Regulations 2016, the Government stipulates that applicants must provide their name, address, date of birth, nationality and confirmation that they are seeking – either alone or with others – to acquire a serviced plot of land in the relevant authority’s area to build a house to occupy as that individual’s sole or main residence. These details are kept on Part 2 of the Register of Interest.

The LPA can apply affordability and local eligibility criteria to register applicants as well as other material that it is deemed assists in the duty to ‘have regard to the register’ under the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 when carrying out its functions under planning, housing, regeneration and disposal of assets, and a duty to grant suitable planning permission, under the Housing and Planning Act 2016. To this end, applicants to the register are asked about the types of projects and locations, finances and circumstances. This is kept on Part 1 of the register.

The Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 requires LPAs to publish headline data in their Authority Monitoring Report. In addition, Government planning practice guidance recommends that an annual summary of the Register of Interest is published under prescribed base periods. It advises that this includes:

• the number of individuals and associations on the register
• the number of plots sought
• location preferences
• plot size
• type of housing intended to be built

The Housing and Planning Act 2016 defines the base periods for the Register of Interest. The first base period is the date the LPA first established a Register of Interest (31 March 2015), to the day before the day on which section 10 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 came into force, which was 31 October 2016. Each subsequent base period is 12 months beginning immediately after the end of the previous base period. It is intended that an annual report be published for each subsequent base period.