'I built my own home to beat the London housing crisis'

It's not easy to find an affordable place to live in the capital so building your own home might seem appealing if you are struggling to get on the housing ladder or keep up with the rent.

In 1990s London, some housing cooperatives built whole streets of social housing, sharing knowledge and construction skills between them.

But, 30 years on, can this approach work effectively while meeting today's tighter building regulations?

Tim Oshodi lives in Lewisham in a two-bedroom house with a large garden that he built himself.

It is a wooden-framed dwelling in the style of radical architect Walter Segal, on a site historically designated by the local council as unsuitable for mainstream housing.

Oshodi was part of London's first black-led housing cooperative, Fusions Jameen, which self-built 13 social homes on Nubia Way some 30 years ago, each with an assured tenancy and a 30% discount in rent.

"We had to set up our own black-led cooperative in order to get our housing," explained Tim.

The homes were constructed between 1994 -1997 on a disused garage site acquired by Chisel Housing Association for the cooperative to build on.

The housing co-op then advertised for people to come forward, giving priority to people of African/Caribbean descent, Lewisham residents and anyone in housing need.

They were invited to come and build their own social homes there: free labour in exchange for a decent place to live.

Hundreds of people initially signed up to build their own homes, but the time commitment of 24 hours a week needed to get the builds done over three years meant many people drifted away, leaving a much smaller group of committed, but inexperienced individuals to carry out the build.

"You don't use this now, but we used post-and-beam. You made the frames on the ground and then pushed them up. It was easier for first-time builders," explained Tim.

The self-builders faced opposition and racism from local people as they tried to build.

In 1993 black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered in nearby Eltham in a racist attack.

The self-builders had to guard the site at night to stop the homes from being set on fire.

"There were all these rumours that we were these African refugees taking white working-class people's homes," said Oshodi.

"But we were refugees from Battersea, from Peckham," he explained.

Despite the setbacks the homes were eventually completed successfully, and 30 years on a mixed community of people from all backgrounds now lives in Nubia Way.

The success of the Nubia Way build inspired others to build their own, similar homes.

In the late 1990s single-mum Charmaine McNally was living in a two-bedroom flat in a tower block in Lewisham with her two sons and a daughter, who were all in one room.

While she was at the housing office one day, she saw a leaflet from the South London Family Housing Association (SLFHA) about building your own home.

"I was on a ban because I'd been offered a flat in a different block and I refused because it was no bigger than what I had," she said.

"I saw Tim (Oshodi) at one of the meetings talking about self-building."

She decided to sign up.

"I was desperate. I didn't have another choice. And when you have no other choice, you have to make it work."

Over three years she completed what is now a five-bedroom home in a female-led self-build, next to Chinbrook Park.

The 14 homes in Meadow Lane were built in return for a 10% reduction in rent and an assured tenancy.

Feeling empowered as a result of the build, and eager to do more, McNally set up a successful all-female building and maintenance firm, mostly employing women from the Meadow Lane self-build site.

Inspired by his mum's achievement, her son then went on to build his own home, and also set up his own construction firm.

Years later, McNally was eventually able to buy the home that she had built.

Asked how she felt about the build, she replied, "I feel proud of myself, because I wasn't just given something. I earned it and I deserve it."

Levent Kerimol is the director of the social enterprise, Community Led Homes.

He would like to see more community self-builds, but believes that building your own home is still too difficult in the UK, due to ever more stringent building regulations.

"Nowadays construction has become a lot more complicated with building regulations, health and safety, insurance and funders requirements that make it very difficult to do this kind of self-construction, at least with public money.

He said that in London, co-operative and community-led housing contributed to around 0.1% of housing in London per year but the figure was much bigger in many European cities, at around 11% in Berlin, 20% in Zurich, up to 50% in Vienna, with growing movements in Barcelona and Amsterdam.

"However it is still far too difficult to do, and can take many years with no guarantee of success," added Kerimol.

"This is something we are looking to address through collective ownership, making it easier for people to move into stable, affordable homes that they control as landlords together with their neighbours."

The Naked House build is an alternative idea.

It is a custom-build rather than a self-build, where the basic shell of the house is done for you, and buyers have the opportunity to make it their own by adding flooring walls and outside tiling.

The homes are private rather than social but they are designed to be affordable, on sale with the freehold at 20% less than the market rate.

"The starting prices are £235,000. The bigger homes come in at around £330,000, which sounds like a lot but it is affordable for two incomes," said Simon Chouffot, one of the co-founders of the not-for-profit community builder, Naked House.

"It's got a very bare aesthetic, so there's huge opportunity for people to put their stamp on a place."

The Naked House project took years to get off the ground, so long in fact that Chouffot and his friends ended up buying outside of London before the build started, even though the idea had originally been to build houses that they could live in themselves.

"We were all being priced out of the communities in which we'd put down roots," he explained.

"Community and sustainability that's what people want from housing," believes Chouffot. "Sometimes that gets lost with the big house builders."

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