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What you will build?

This is the crucial stage where you work out how to make your proposed scheme a reality.

If you have an arrangement with a developer to provide you with completed homes or to hand over homes on completion under a “turn-key” contract, you can probably skip this section and refer to Managing the build process.

If like most CLTs you don’t have this option, you will need to tackle the land and planning issues yourselves: identify the land you require. It must be available at a price you can afford and you have to have a reasonable expectation of being able to secure planning permission.

You will then need to engage a professional team to design the scheme and work out what it is going to cost. As part of this you need to decide, with the help of your professional team, aspects of the specification of the scheme including what your approach is going to be in relation to sustainable building methods. All new-build homes will have to meet the Code for Sustainable Homes, which is the national standard for sustainable design and construction.

Your procurement strategy and construction process will be influenced by factors such as time (the speed at which you want homes to be constructed), cost (varying price levels or cost certainty), the degree of control you want (whether the developer can decide on materials to use or you want to specify everything) and the quality of your homes (the degrees of functionality, performance and design quality). Equally, the procurement strategy you adopt will influence the extent to which you engage with external professionals such as architects. These issues are discussed under Managing the build process and you should give some thought to these issues when embarking on this design process.

Working with a housing association or a development trust who has experience of the development process could be a great help at this stage if you can identify one that is willing to support your endeavours and share their expertise with you. If you plan later to apply for grant to the Homes and Communities Agency, a housing association’s knowledge of how the system works could be essential.

There will be a number of issues to consider when planning and designing the build of your homes. Ultimately the manner in which your homes are planned, designed and constructed will have a significant bearing on the overall viability of your project, so this part of the journey is not only about selecting and engaging with a professional team but also about balancing the finance of your scheme with its delivery and the need to meet particular standards of design.