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Building your own home

Many people choose to build their own home as a way of meeting specific household requirements.

There are various options available to self-builders although most will need to commission an architect to design the house, some will then employ a builder to construct it, whereas others may choose to build all or part of the house themselves. Custom build usually involves working with a specialist developer to deliver a project.

It is recognised that self or custom build projects can be an affordable housing option due to cost-saving opportunities such as the removal of developer costs.

Registering your interest

Let us know if you are interested in building your own home in Northumberland National Park.

The Register

Northumberland National Park Authority maintains a register of associations and individuals who are interested in acquiring serviced plots of land to bring forward self-build or custom house building projects in the National Park.

The primary purpose of the Self Build and Custom Housebuilding Register is to provide us with information on the demand for this type of housing in the National Park. It will enable us to identify means of supporting such development through the development of planning policy. It should be noted, however, that the authority is making no commitment to provide plots of land for self-build or custom housebuilding.

We will not be publishing the register, however, we may periodically publish anonymous headline data from it in monitoring reports.

How to express your interest

To be eligible for entry on Part 1 of the register you must be:

  • Aged 18 or older;
  • A British citizen, a national of a European Economic Area (EEA) State other than the United Kingdom, or a national of Switzerland; and
  • Seeking (either alone or with others) to acquire a serviced plot of land in the National Park for your own self-build or custom housebuilding project.
  • Meet the Northumberland National Park Local Connection Test Criteria.

Individuals or associations of individuals who apply for entry on the register and meet all the eligibility criteria will be entered on Part 1. Those who meet all the eligibility criteria except for a local connection test will be entered on Part 2 of the register.

If you wish to make an entry as an association of individuals, all of its members need to meet the above criteria. We ask that you nominate a member of the association to act as a lead contact.

Registering Your Interest

If you’d like to enquire or register your interest in building your own home, please download a relevant form below and return this to us either by email or post.

Submitting a plot of land for self-build or custom housebuilding

We also invite the submission of sites which are considered suitable for self-build or custom housebuilding.  The National Park Authority assesses the suitability of sites for development through the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA).   This provides us with information on the amount of land in the National Park that could deliver development and at what point of time this could be expected to come forward.

To register a plot of land which you have in mind for a project, or which you believe to be suitable for this type of housing please complete the form below.

If you do not own the land, please ensure you have permission from the landowner prior to submitting details of the site.

To submit a site please download a relevant form from one of the links below and return this to us either by email or post.

Self-build register site submission form – PDF format

Self-build register site submission form – word format

Further Information

We may contact you to confirm your eligibility or to discuss opportunities for self and custom build projects. However, we will not pass any identifiable information onto anyone outside of the authority without your written consent.

Please note that we are not affiliated with any third party organisations promoting self or custom build services or advice. Making an entry through this form is the only way that we are able to monitor demand and plot availability for self and custom build projects in the Northumberland National Park.

If you have any queries regarding the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Register you can contact the Forward Planning team by email at forward.planning@nnpa.org.uk or by telephone on 01434 605555.