Self-building in the UK: Interview and survey data

<p>Abstract copyright data collection owner.</p>This data collection includes data collected as part of the project Selfbuilding: the production and consumption of new homes from the perspective of households. It includes (1) survey data with self builders and potential self builders, alongside (2) transcripts for interviews conducted with key informants (KI) and (3) transcripts for interviews conducted with self builders. (1) The survey data submitted here was collected in 2012-13 via two online surveys, generated and hosted by Bristol Online Surveys. PDF copies of these surveys are included as part of this submission. (a) The first of these targeted contemporary self builders--people who were building or who had built their own homes in the last 20 years. It consisted for 54 questions, covering the desire to selfbuild; past and present residential choice; experiences of construction and self-build; planning your selfbuild; financing your self-build; details of individual self-build projects; and experience of self-building; while also collecting basic information about individual households. (b) The second of these targeted would-be self builders. A much shorter survey, this was designed to merely capture a sense of what people wanted to achieve through self-build and their motivations alongside basic information. (2) The submission to the archive include 30 transcripts of semi-structured interviews conducted with key informants--industry professionals, housing practitioners, local authority representatives and planners. These were conducted between 2013 and 2015. (3) The submission also includes transcripts from in-depth interviews conducted with 22 research participants. Where follow-up visits including recorded interviews took place, there are additional transcripts. <p>Project description:</p>The self-building of homes is being promoted as one solution to the shortage of affordable houses in Britain. Currently, self-build projects account for 14% of the new homes built, a percentage equivalent to or greater than that of any single house building firm. This form of housing provision is, however, understudied, with the result that there is very little understanding of who the people are who choose to build their homes, the motivations for this residential practice and experiences of self-building. This project aims to correct this lacuna of knowledge, conducting a systematic enquiry into self-building in Britain, taking seriously the need to know who is using self-build, what their characteristics are and to what extent they succeed in their aims, as well as exploring how the self-build market is structured. The project will be conducted over three years, and is comprised of several different modes of data collection and analysis, engaging self-build households, potential self-builders, industry professionals and experts, national and local planning authorities. This will be supplemented with a review of planning and housing policies, and analysis of popular representations of self-build in Britain