Self-building in the UK: Interview and survey data

Benson, Michaela (2016). Self-building in the UK: Interview and survey data. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852164

The self-building of homes is being promoted as one solution to the shortage of affordable houses in Britain. Currently, self-build projects account for 14% of the new homes built, a percentage equivalent to or greater than that of any single house building firm. This form of housing provision is, however, understudied, with the result that there is very little understanding of who the people are who choose to build their homes, the motivations for this residential practice and experiences of self-building. This project aims to correct this lacuna of knowledge, conducting a systematic enquiry into self-building in Britain, taking seriously the need to know who is using self-build, what their characteristics are and to what extent they succeed in their aims, as well as exploring how the self-build market is structured.
The project will be conducted over three years, and is comprised of several different modes of data collection and analysis, engaging self-build households, potential self-builders, industry professionals and experts, national and local planning authorities. This will be supplemented with a review of planning and housing policies, and analysis of popular representations of self-build in Britain.

Data description (abstract)

This data collection includes data collected as part of the project Selfbuilding: the production and consumption of new homes from the perspective of households. It includes (1) survey data with self builders and potential self builders, alongside (2) transcripts for interviews conducted with key informants (KI) and (3) transcripts for interviews conducted with self builders.

(1) The survey data submitted here was collected in 2012-13 via two online surveys, generated and hosted by Bristol Online Surveys. PDF copies of these surveys are included as part of this submission.

(a) The first of these targeted contemporary self builders--people who were building or who had built their own homes in the last 20 years. It consisted for 54 questions, covering the desire to selfbuild; past and present residential choice; experiences of construction and self-build; planning your selfbuild; financing your self-build; details of individual self-build projects; and experience of self-building; while also collecting basic information about individual households.

(b) The second of these targeted would-be self builders. A much shorter survey, this was designed to merely capture a sense of what people wanted to achieve through self-build and their motivations alongside basic information.

(2) The submission to the archive include 30 transcripts of semi-structured interviews conducted with key informants--industry professionals, housing practitioners, local authority representatives and planners. These were conducted between 2013 and 2015.

(3) The submission also includes transcripts from in-depth interviews conducted with 22 research participants. Where follow-up visits including recorded interviews took place, there are additional transcripts.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Benson Michaela	Goldsmiths

Sponsors:

ESRC

Grant reference:

ES/K001078/1

Topic classification:

Housing and land use

Keywords:

self build, buildings, property, ownership and tenure, home ownership

Project title:

Self-building: the production and consumption of new homes from the perspective of households

Grant holders:

Michaela Benson

Project dates:

From	To
1 October 2012	30 September 2015

Date published:

17 Feb 2016 16:03

Last modified:

17 Feb 2016 16:03

Coverage and Methodology

Collection period:

Date from:	Date to:
1 October 2012	31 August 2013

Geographical area:

United Kingdom

Country:

United Kingdom

Data collection method:

The research took place in three stages:

(1) Semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders including local authority representatives, representatives from DCLG, national self-build association (NaSBA), selfbuild developers and supplies, housing practitioners. These were recruited through targeted enquiries via email or phone in the first instance; further parties were recruited via snowball sampling.

(2) Internet survey of self-building households
The target population for the survey was self-building households at all stages in the process, including those who are just thinking about self-build, and those who have completed their projects. Statistics on the numbers of households who self-build are disputed, and not disaggregated in terms of class background, household composition or the level of engagement. It is therefore impossible to obtain a representative sample in terms of these variables. The survey was promoted through a range of specialist networks and internet fora, with the aim of getting a wide coverage of Britain's self builders.

(3) Ethnographic case studies with 20 self-building households
A purposive sample of self-building households was recruited through various methods including survey responses, networks and forums. Self-builders at all stages in the self-build process will be recruited. The sample aimed to capture the diversity of the self-build population in terms of household composition, individual and collective self-build, the roles that households take within the self- build process, socio-economic background and the overall financial investment that they make in their projects.
For each case study, the researcher spent up to three days with the household, conducting research using a variety of methods including: (1) in-depth interviews with households and individual household members, asking people to think back over their experiences of self-building; (2) the collection of housing and residential histories and trajectories; (3) innovative participatory research methods (a) visual ethnography on-site and (b) analysis of personal archives and architectural plans; (4) participant observation in the home and around the neighbourhood; (5) and the collection of basic socio-economic data.

Observation unit:

Household, Individual, Organization

Kind of data:

Numeric

Type of data:

Other surveys, Qualitative and mixed methods data

Resource language:

English

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Self-building: the production and consumption of new homes from the perspective of households

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