the ceiling heights of a dwelling, he can save, say, two thousand pounds. In itself this is not much, but multiplied across an entire development, it yields a significant extra margin. By contrast, a self-provider would probably not see that two thousand pound saving as a worthwhile economy.
Self-provided housing Self-provided housing describes any process whereby those who will be living in the dwellings take responsibility for procuring their own home. This includes not just those who physically construct the structure themselves, but also those who contract certain tasks out to professionals but retain the central role of carrying the financial risk for the project and having control over design decisions.
Secondly, a self-provider may also (inadvertently) make ‘irrational’ design choices which favour increased use-value, because they are making those decisions within what behavioural economists might refer to as a ‘social norm’ rather than a pure ‘market norm’. In other words, as they design, the selfprovider is not only calculating the cost of the project and protecting its long-term asset-value, but also imagining their home as a place to live. We’re human – we simply can’t help ourselves: “I really want big south windows because I like to sit in the sun.’... ‘I’m a guitarist, so I need somewhere to practice without disturbing the neighbours”...
Although the basic stages of the project are unchanged, this creates a fundamentally different value-architecture. Most simply, because rather than designing for asset value generating shareholder profit, self-providers tend to design for long term use-value in the first place because they are the future users; designing a more generous house which is more appropriate to their specific family needs (out of self-interest). Because of this, their houses are likely to be better in terms of energy performance and quality. 9 There are two key reasons for this. Firstly, because the design decisions are taken by the long-term user, this extends the cost equation to take in the whole life-cycle of the building. For example, money invested in increased energy performance of the building fabric is offset against reduced energy bills in the future – so decisions to invest up-front in better insulation (which would be irrational for a speculative housebuilder) become rational ones for a self-provider, who has a stake in long-term as well as short-term savings. A similar principle can apply to qualitative choices. For example, a canny speculative developer might realise that by lowering
9. Refer to Barlow, Jackson and Meikle Homes to DIY For (JRF, 2001), Buildstore Self build moving centre stage (Buildstore, 2009), National Self-Build Association Selfbuild as a volume housebuilding solution (NaSBA, 2008)
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