Tiny House Talk - Overview

First of all, a HUGE thank you to all the attendees that we had on the call for Tiny House Talk! We were overwhelmed by the turnout! For those of you that missed out on the call, here is a link to our Youtube Channel where you can watch the presentation which is a 30 minute talk on how we wish to implement tiny houses in the UK. 

In this post, I would like to give an overview of the response after the call and what the next potential steps are. 

An Overview of the Presentation 

In short, after watching the call back, aside from my miserable face (who knows why as I’m always so smiley!) I feel that we did our best to show how we want to implement tiny houses in the UK. The methods we have chosen, while not for every tiny house enthusiast, blend what current UK laws are available with the tiny house concept to speed up the progress of community affordable housing in the UK. 

The following implementation ideas are as follows;

A New Take on a Park Home Site

Our idea is to reinvigorate the classic park home site (over 60s) with a new sustainably built tiny house village for 40+ who are active and want to be socially involved in a community filled with like-minded people. Why 40+? From our data, women predominantly lead the way with close to 70% of people who make the first contact being females between 40-50 years old. A common reason for wanting a community is to find more like-minded individuals in a vibrant neighbourhood that is social and active. So if this concept is wanted, we figured that a custom design groundfloor tiny house could be used following Park Home planning laws (speeding up the process). This style of site would also benefit the community who can be granted park home financing rather than requiring the whole sum for the home upfront. We would plan to create a 100% off-grid site with a communal space for gardening and growing food - two key things that are noted in blue zones for a long and healthy life. We’d also create a communal space for a coffee shop or an indoor space for people to relax and enjoy one another's company. 

The Con - Park home plots are expensive and the fees to own the plot would be more than say a small plot from a farmer. This money would be calculated into the financing and once paid, you would own the land with the rest of the community and would eventually have no monthly outgoings. 

First Time Buyer Homes

We hear a similar message almost every week ‘I just love the tiny house lifestyle but I don’t want to leave my home’. For many, this halts the tiny house dream almost immediately as the only options are to start a community of your own or to find some land which may be expensive to purchase by yourself as well as affording the home. We got to thinking, where can we find land within towns that no one wants to use? Tah-dah! There are hundreds of newly built estates up and down the country and many have plots that are too small for their style of houses meaning the developer makes a loss on that piece of land. We thought ‘what if we took on a big developer and created a compact home that fits in these small spaces?’. This would allow people up and down the country to remain in their towns and to have affordable homes. The best part about this plan is if we do get this put through with a housing developer, you’ll be the first to know rather than the homes being sold via an estate agent. Bonus, you would be able to get a mortgage for the home as it would be placed on ground screws as a permanent dwelling. 

The Con - THERE'S A BUCKET LOAD OF RED TAPE. Meaning this is going to take some time. It’s also a chicken or the egg scenario where people will effectively wait for this to happen but if people don’t push now and get involved (as we need to show that people want this now and not later down the line) then this may never happen. If you are keen, please check your local new build estates for unusable plots and let me know the location and developer name so we can check for you! 

Tiny House Eco Village

Following planning rules, it’s not so easy to purchase a plot of green land (agricultural land) and to be granted planning permission for a community. The land itself is expensive and planning will take years and may never get through. We want to simplify the process by seeking small plots up and down the country on brownfield sites or empty plots that housing developers have no interest in purchasing. These plots are usually £80,000 - £120,000 and can fit from 5-12 units on each plot. As the land has already been removed from agriculture and our homes are built surpassing UK housing standards along with following passive house principles, we would apply for planning under an eco-village that is 100% off-grid hitting the town’s sustainability targets and offering affordable housing to the area. The house, groundwork and land costs would be split between the community and may require up to £5000 per community dweller to get the ball rolling. We also plan to seek funding to purchase this type of land and hope the funds to pay and prove this concept works will open up the floodgates for other communities to copy and paste this method. 

The Con - Again, chicken or the egg! We need a community to come together to find a plot and be ready for financing (which requires a good credit score) and have sought a plot that they like. From here, we can take over and make it happen. What we can’t do is pick a site and hope they will come. If they don’t, it’ll be a waste of time and money. 

So that’s our plan, what was your response?

While our ideas are nothing new and most certainly will take to come to fruition, we were very pleased with the response we had after the call. Out of 50 people who joined, I received 38 responses regarding your location and where you would be willing to locate. Some have kindly offered investment to put towards a community or to start their own community and are willing to guide others. Many also said they would love to help raise money to create the first Eco Village to provide the concept so it can be copied, multiplied and financed up and down the country. Others were simply excited about the concept and plan to make the move in 4-5 years which shows that this style of living is going to continue to be desired for years to come. 

What’s next?

After receiving these replies, I have created a list of where everyone is located (feel free to email me your location - leanne@thetinyhousing.co) Over the next few weeks, I will begin connecting groups and working on who is more ready than others to ensure people can work together now and those who are 5 years down the line can still prepare ahead of time without someone feeling rushed into making decisions. I will also continue to post a monthly social media message to find out where people are located to help grow this list as the more people we know about, the easier it will be to decide on how to proceed further. We will also continue with our plans to set up an eco-village with a goal to start small and create a proof of concept. 

We would also love to hear from you if you have a community or want to start a community and have sought a potential plot that we can support you with. 

A Final Note…

I mean this with a big hug from me to you, is we simply cannot offer the dream life with acres of space for your lovely home at an affordable price as this simply doesn’t exist unless you are fortunate to already be a landowner. Our ideas may burst many people’s bubbles and equally may not be a popular solution when tiny house living is spouted as something quite different across the pond. For us, our goal is to help those who want a greener way of living in a healthy communal neighbourhood where it is normal to say hello to the person next door! We want to take an eye-sore brownfield site away from small towns to create a beautiful green oasis for its tiny house residents. If this is something that you would like to do, we are here with our arms open and ready to help where possible! 

For those whose bubble has burst, I apologise for the harsh reality. We feel your pain as we are met with lucky souls who can afford this lifestyle and do know others who are making it happen in what we like to call ‘stealth’ mode and will hide in secret with the help of a friendly farmer or landowner. While we can’t offer support for ‘stealth’ mode and if you are willing to risk it for a biscuit, then your dreams can come true, just with a little bit of extra work! 

We’d love to hear from you and your thoughts! 

Do you have a community?

Do you have a plan of your own that could help others?

Do you have land that you could share with others?

Know a farmer that has an interest but needs someone to provide all the facts and figures? 

Let us know how we can help! At The Tiny Housing Co, we believe there is no wrong way to achieve tiny house living as they are currently no rules or regulations surrounding them. We hope one day there will be some form of Tiny House Association like the ones in Australia and the US to help support this way of living. Until then, we say if you have an idea, let's give it a go! 

To get in touch, please contact myself leanne@thetinyhousing.co or dane dane@thetinyhousing.co (just co - not com or co.uk!)

Thanks for reading and we look forward to your responses!