Individual Self-provision and the Scottish Housing System

Abstract

This paper provides a preliminary examination of individual self-provision of housing in Scotland; that is, instances where individuals are directly involved in the production of their own house, rather than buying a house on the market. After a brief overview of the history of individual self-provision in Britain, the characteristics of the sector in Britain, and particularly in Scotland, are outlined. The core of the paper reports the results of a pilot survey of self-provision in Scotland. Four issues are examined: the type of self-provision; land availability; relationships with commercial interests; and local housing systems and access. It is concluded that self-provision is an important but mostly unrecognised source of new housing provision, whose incidence depends crucially on the nature of local housing systems and the extent to which planning policies are favourable in terms of land release and development control.