“10 Grand” Design

If, like me, you dream of living in a modern home of the like seen in Grand Designs, this link from the BBC gives you hope - and perhaps offers a solution to the UK housing shortage.

Steve James is the designer behind the home built using straw, turf and other peoples’ waste.

And he believes a three bedroom family home can be built for as little as £10,000.

“It is something that anybody could easily learn to do most of, with help,” he said.

“The real cost of a house is fairly small. It is always the land that makes about 85% of the cost.

“Adding the compound interest to the final cost of a mortgage reduces the actual house price component of the total to as little as 2%.”

Surely, as the UK faces an increasing housing shortage and grapples with environmental depletion and degradation, a cheap and green alternative to bricks and mortar is just the answer needed?

This idea brings together the first two options of the AQA AS Unit 3 (Markets at Work) - the housing market and the environment.