Planning in the UK is a farce, regardless of the rights and wrongs of this case. If you have enough money you will get approval, and it doesn’t actually matter where you build.

For centuries houses have been built then someone at the end of the second world war decided that everything needed to be planned, to be zoned. Now look at where we are, you have a housing estate, an industrial estate, a retail park. Rather than trying to get people not to drive the whole system is designed to keep people driving, to keep the volume house builders in work.

Have a look at how many houses in the UK are NOT built by volume housebuilders and then have a look at most other countries. Then have a look at the houses, in the UK they are tiny, the build quality is woeful, yet because they tick some hypothetical box they are fine.

Yes he should have gone through the right channels, but then again what is the point because you know that unless it is a mock georgian/tudor barrat box you are going to fail.

I thought it was interesting that Ben Law who built something similar (grander) on grand designs was allowed planning but wasnt allowed to sell.

I quite like the concept of being able to build what you like, but not sell it.
I imagine getting rid of all the legal loopholes to stop sales by other means would be difficult though.

It’s all about land values and village spread. The land he built it on, if agricultural, is probably of the order of £2000. With PP for residential, it would be nearer £70,000. Most of the nice places we like to ride our bikes would be endless sprawl if PP wasn’t enforced. Admittedly this keeps house prices high, but that’s life. If I could just go buy a field and put up whatever I wanted, of course I would. There’d be a shortage of fields in about two weeks flat though. Hard cases make bad law.

Yes he should have gone through the right channels, but then again what is the point because you know that unless it is a mock georgian/tudor barrat box you are going to fail.

The issue isn’t so much with what he built as where he built it. They’d have refused him permission for a mock georgian barrat box just the same.

Yes he should have gone through the right channels, but then again what is the point because you know that unless it is a mock georgian/tudor barrat box you are going to fail.

I guess the point would be that you don’t go to all the effort to build a house, and then have it knocked down?

I thought Tesco were well known for build-first-ask-permission-later as they can influence decisions afterwards by showing how many people they have employed?

A la Stockport/almost to the T. They even said ‘jobs may be threatened’. Basically built a store TOO big (err oops?) and were told part of it couldn’t be used so went on the offensive…..

The issue isn’t so much with what he built as where he built it. They’d have refused him permission for a mock georgian barrat box just the same.

If you have enough money you will win though….

If you want to as a private individual want to build a home you can build one almost anywhere, just has to be of sufficient merit.

Standard Tesco policy is to play the game, break the rules and the council will give way eventually.

That the differential in price between agri and building land is so high, that house prices are ridiculus, suggests that there is a problem with planning!

Also consider that if you can’t afford to buy a house you are at the whim of private landlords and a system that states you can only have any security for 6months.

The system sucks….

Charlie felt he had no choice but to build his house without the approval of the planning authorities, convinced permission for his home would be refused. The lack of affordable homes and strict planning regulations touches many lives.

Why did he even start?

I suppose he could have just done nothing..

Why did he even start?

if something is wrong, you can either shut up do nothing and moan, or try and do something? Everyone needs somewhere to live, not enough houses are being built and in many rural areas in particular the situation is totally obscene.

What is better building houses or expecting people to spend half there life commuting? What is the point in building 5 bed houses when the average family is nowhere near that big? How much of the current housing stock is under-occupied? a couple in a three bed semi and a family in a one bed flat?

If someone decent with a genuine concern and love for humanity makes something or does something that doesn’t necessarily meet a strict criteria then take each case on it’s merits..

I’ll just employ someone with dreads and a face you like to front up my scheme then.

what is the point because you know that unless it is a mock georgian/tudor barrat box you are going to fail.

No – use the system. I know quite a few people who have built / are building with rammed earth, roundwood timber, straw bales etc. They did their homework and did a good job. They have succeeded because a few clever people with ideals worked hard to get the materials and designs tested and approved. There are even loadbearing straw bale council houses in Lincolnshire. Not many, and there could be more, but it is a start.

If you have enough money you will win though….

Didn’t work for these people

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2263851/Couple-told-tear-secret-500-000-luxury-home-hid-inside-hay-barn-losing-final-round-10-year-legal-battle-planners.html

I’ll just employ someone with dreads and a face you like to front up my scheme then.

😆

I think we’re mature enough as a species to recognise a **** when we see one and tell him/her to piss off..

Except if it is some ridiculous hobbit themed piece of retro nostalgia rubbish built with no consideration for petty things like building regulations, in which case some of the species appear to think they should be allowed to do whatever they want.

Not that I necessarily think it is rubbish, just that to some people (a lot of them presumably), a ‘mock georgian/tudor barrat box’ looks attractive, whereas something like that looks terrible, so ‘as a species’, we should surely be applying some kind of rational logic to whether people can build things, rather than just saying ‘ooh it looks like hobbit land, allowed’, and spouting out a load of snobbery about the tastes of the masses who presumably like their ‘barrat boxes’.

There’s no allowance for a fire exit.

Are you sure? I don’t think you’re that familiar with the B Regs are you?

Not sure what he expected without getting planning, deserves to be ripped down IMO.

What happens if he doesn’t pull it down?

If it’s on private land, could he not just put a locked gate at the entrance?

joemarshall – you’re a planning officer aren’t you..? 😆

Some other stiff and starched bureaucrat perhaps.. But it’s that grumpy lofty outrage that marks you out as a **** under the reign of yunki..

Piss off and buy a barratt house in town, case closed.. NEXT!

Some random thoughts:

1) nice hobbit hole, I guess
2) without much privacy for any new arrivals in the family
3) eco materials, crack on
4) build without permission, expect problems

I guess the thinking was “this eco spunkfest ticks all my ethical boxes, therefore I must be allowed to build it” – not “how can I make a house that both fits the rules and my personal ethics”.

How about if I thought a big cubic bright green block with a huge yellow smiley face on each size, that looked like a large lego brick after swallowing a trip, was the last word in aesthetics? I guess I should just go right ahead and stick two fingers up at the system, man.

Or maybe I’d have to compromise.

Which seems to be the missing word in charlie’s endeavour.

it’s a shame IMO, what he did wasn’t right but he’d have never got it built on that budget if the building reg’s were involved regardless of if it is safe or not. yes it was against the rules but it is a modest eco friendly dwelling which in the real world affects nobody! it is not a massive Tesco’s plonked in the middle of a national park.

+1 for if you have enough money you can do what you want, a lot of the time. I live in the New Forest and the planning rules here are somewhat more restrictive than normal. The laudable aim is to maintain a cross section of housing stock. i.e make sure rich people don’t come in buy up all the houses and turn ’em it into massive places forcing out locals on lower incomes out.

A very clear example just round the corner from me a guy bought a small 2/3 bed bungalow and has turned it into a massive 4/5 bed house with outbuildings bigger than my house and turned it from an already overpriced £350k, to a property worth well in excess of a million pounds. To do it he took the national park to court 2/3 times until they couldn’t afford to fight any longer.

I on the other hand want to make my 2 bed into a 3 bed and build a garage and it looks like it’s going to be fight from beginning to end all for 30% (which includes conservatory’s and attached garages) on the original size. Thing is next door (originally identical to mine) is already 60% bigger + massive attached garage + conservatory.

I don’t think you’re that familiar with the B Regs are you?

No, But I’m damn sure I would want another way of getting out if there’s so much wood around me. It looks that he seems to have salvaged from a field so I’m not so sure it’s been fireproofed. That house does not look like a good environment to be when your family is at risk.

Here in Somerset Tesco used the wrong tiles on the roof of the store in Wells but got away with it .Probably by bunging the council a bit more towards the swimming pool they were helping fund .At the same time 20 miles away a bloke had to take down his dormer roof extension because it was 15 inches too high.Double standards seem to apply often with planning

The twee little film says living in the future when it looks like an upmarket Saxon hovel!

Snowdonia National Park insists all properties must have locally mined slate on all rooves.
Where do you think the slates are from for the roof of the National Park head office?
That’s right.
Spain.
They have been allowed to keep them.

No sympathy whatsoever.

It’s not the Planning as much as it is the lack of Building Control.

I think as humans we should very nearly be sensible enough

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

tinybits – Member

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

😆
hmmm.. yes

This thread is all the evidence we need, to show that I was perhaps being a tiny bit optimistic.. 😳