Graven Hill study trips offer first hand insight into the realities of custom and self build delivery

Graven Hill is the development most associated with custom and self build in our national psyche. It's frequently mentioned within the sector as the poster child for alternative models to housing delivery, and - thanks to Grand Designs - is familiar to many would-be self-builders, as it was featured in both 'Grand Designs - The Street' and this year's 'The Streets'.

The Right to Build Task Force is running study trips to the site over the summer and autumn, giving professionals the chance to discover first hand what the site looks like in reality, and what it's been like to deliver so far. And it's a far more complex than many realise.

There are many lessons to be learnt from Graven Hill in terms of getting it right - and perhaps what not to do - that would apply to a range of much smaller sites. What's clear is that very few other sites like this will come forward in custom and self build - partly due to Graven Hill's size but also due to it's A-typical approach of using a Local Development Order to secure the planning permission.

There are plenty of misconceptions about Graven Hill, which is constructed on repurposed Ministry of Defence land. The most obvious are that there will 1,900 owner commissioned homes - when in reality there is a range of housing solutions on site, including custom and self builds on individual plots, market housing - both houses and apartments, and also affordable housing products, with Bromford Housing Association delivering the first tranche. This demonstrates that custom and self build can work as part of a suite of housing approaches - useful to konw.

Another misconception that often crops up is that people can build what they want on the self build plots - when in reality individual plots come with a Plot Passport that sets out what is acceptable on a plot-by-plot basis. These set out the parameters of what can be built on this site, and as well as detailing practicalities, such as boundary treatments, service locations, build zones and parking requirements, they encompass a range of other features. Typically this would be mass, height and positioning on site, materials choices pre-agreed with planning and any rules you need to abide by, such as ratios of windows or orientation. Check out one of Graven Hill's Plot Passports, here.

Plot Passports, which work as part of a site's Design Code and, on large sites, the Master Plan, are tools now seen on many custom and self build developments. Typically as long as the conditions they set out are met, planning is pre-permissioned - or fast-tracked, and they offer three-fold guarantees that make them indispensable tools in the planners' box. This is because they offer surety about what will be built that can allay the concerns of the council, the wider community and also future residents on the site. As such, they ensure that - where custom and self build is emerging as part of a larger site - that these owner-commissioned homes read as part of a site-wide context. This is an important consideration for many volume-housebuilders working with a small custom and self build allocation as part of a larger site.

This is key as more and more councils are adopting policies where custom and self build is allocated on a percentage basis, such as 5% on sites over 100 houses.

The Right to Build Task Force is aware that not many sites at this volume will emerge, although Garden Communities could be one area where such large-scale approaches could work well. But the sheer range of models on offer at Graven Hill is what makes it such an incredible destination for a study visit. And this is regardless of whether you work in a local authority, or if you are a developer or enabler looking for ways forward that will fit with local policy ambitions.

Not only are the planning and policy contexts useful and replicable, but the experiences of those who've built there - and the finished streets already built - offer exciting signposts for what is possible with vision and determination, especially on the part of councillors and local authority planners.

Study visits run at 10am and 12pm on 4 July, 6 September and 9 November, and cost ￡45 (incl VAT) for local authority planners or ￡120 (incl. VAT) for professionals in private practice.

Book your place via Eventbrite.

Visit www.righttobuild.org.uk for the Task Force's suite of free guidance for local authority planners working to enable custom and self build locally.