Families searching for cheaper residential property have been urged by the government to consider building their own home.

Speaking at Grand Designs Live, Planning Minister Nick Boles told potential self-builders it can be a more affordable - not to mention rewarding - way to obtain a family home.

He said there is "huge potential" for lots more people to opt for self building or custom building, which is where people work with a specialist developer in constructing their home.

With large numbers of people still embarking on a traditional property search as they strive to get their foot on the housing ladder, Mr Boles said he wants to see many more take advantage of custom-build options at a time when more homes are needed.

In comparison to the number of properties constructed by regular developers, the UK is considerably behind other countries when it comes to its volume of self built and custom built homes.

The government has pledged to make it easier for people to build their own and add to the number being constructed in this way, which currently stands at around 10,000 homes a year.

Various measures were announced in the Chancellor's last Budget, including a consultation on a new Right to Build process whereby custom builders would gain a right to a plot of council land.

The government also said it will create a £150 million repayable fund to contribute towards up to 10,000 plots for custom build properties.

It also laid out plans to extend the Help to Buy mortgage scheme to cover custom build property.

Nick Boles said: "There is huge potential for many more people to take up the opportunity to build their own home as a cost effective way into home ownership. The reality is that custom building a house can be a cheaper way to provide a home for you and your family and I want to see many more people making use of it.

"We all know we need more homes and this could be a very good option for many more people wanting to get onto the property ladder."

Conrad Payne from Strutt & Parker’s National Development and Planning division comments: “In theory the Right to Build scheme sounds very positive, but I am sceptical about how it will work practically from a planning perspective.

"Councils are already finding it difficult to process the applications they receive from professional housebuilders – and it will be far more difficult to cope with hundreds of individual planning applications encouraged through the new scheme.

"Whilst we are very supportive of councils releasing more land for building, I would suggest that the Government would be better off spending its £150m educating Councillors and supplying more trained planners to join our currently under-resourced council planning departments.

"This would have much faster and tangible benefits in terms of creating new homes for Britain. It seems doubtful that we will see tens of thousands of newly self-built homes materialising across the country in the near future because of these measures.”