Section 106s have been abolished for self-builders, promising to help hundreds of people looking to build their own home.

Section 106 Agreements are designed to provide financial benefits for the local community from the granting of planning permission and have traditionally been used to extract incentives from developers. They may take the form of new playgrounds, road crossings and even schools, depending on the size of the development. This levy has now been extinguished from immediate effect for self builders

Eric Pickles said: “This will also be a massive boost to the self-build and custom-build sector. Overnight in many parts of England, it will be cheaper to build an extension, a family annex or just build your own home.”

Michael Holmes, Chair of the National Custom and Self-build Association said: “To effectively tax people wishing simply to provide a home for their family with none of the profit motive enjoyed by developers was always, in our opinion, a misuse of Section 106s. We can expect to see many more self-builds start as a result of this announcement.”

The announcement will hopefully incentivise more people to start to build their dream homes.