The Construction Methods Used in Self-Build Schemes - Dissertation Example

New work output decreased by 19.1 per cent, while repair and maintenance plummeted by 16.8 per cent. The largest decrease in construction output was in new work for private housing at 23.3 per cent. This documented decline may well be a consequence of the problem of housing affordability which Riley (2005) forecasted to be getting worse in the coming years. The government lost no time in implementing interventions to ease out the burgeoning housing problem in the UK through legislation, taxation and benefits system, and subsidies.

Among the legislations enacted in recognition of the housing problems were the 1980 Housing Act, 1983 Banking Act, 1986 Building Societies Act and the 2001 Home Buy Scheme. Meanwhile, subsidies to reduce housing shortage include, among others, loosening of planning restrictions and encouraging self-build schemes. Financial incentives for people who will opt to self-build homes. It was noted that offering such financial incentives proved to be cheaper in the long run for the government, and for the homeowners, the satisfaction of erecting their house to their own design and specification.

Six years ago, there were only about 25,000 people self-building their homes in the UK (Owen, 2004). To date, however, 20,000 of the residential properties each year are erected based on the self-build scheme, accounting for 13 per cent of all houses constructed in the UK (Self Build ABC, 2011). These figures put self-builders as the largest house builders in the UK, but not big enough if the proportion is compared with all of Europe. The government has, however, vowed to support aspiring self-builders to join the bandwagon of successful UK self-build homeowners (Communities and Local Governments, 2011).

Cognizant of the recent government efforts to boost home construction through the self-build scheme, the study ventured to investigate different types of self-build construction methods to evaluate which method is the most cost-effective and to gather evidence-based generalisations on the efficacy of the various constructions methods.