I was honoured to be appointed as Liberal Democrat Communities and Local Government Minister in the recent reshuffle. As a former councillor and passionate advocate of localism, I am excited to take up my post in the Department for Communities and Local Government and hope to continue the good work of my predecessors Don Foster and Andrew Stunell.

At last month’s autumn conference in Glasgow, Don announced measures to open up the self build market to those on lower incomes.

The scheme, supported by Channel 4’s Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud, will:

• Provide new grant funding for community self-builders;
• Work with councils to increase land for self-build plots;
• Remove unfair taxes from self-builders;
• Free up more redundant public sector land for self-builders and
• Raise awareness about self-build.

I share Don’s desire to democratise the option to self-build. My constituency of Bristol West contains Ashley Vale in St Werburgh’s; an excellent example of a thriving self-build community. Self-build should be an option for all and I hope that the £65m we’re making available for community-led groups will make it easier for ordinary people to get involved.

In 2012-13 almost 11,000 new homes were self-built, in an industry worth up to £4 billion for the UK economy. The self-build industry has the capacity to double in size over the next 10 years and I am glad to have the support of self-build champion Kevin McCloud who has said of the scheme:

It’s great that many of these additional measures are focused on helping people on modest incomes deliver affordable self-build homes.

I particularly like the fact community self-build groups will be able to get funding, and that more small plots of public owned land will be made available to self-builders.

The news self-builders will be exempted from the Community Infrastructure Levy and other similar charges will also be well received. Collectively, the measures should result in thousands of additional self-build homes being built over the coming years.

I hope that Liberal Democrats share my hopes for the scheme and will support their communities to get involved.

* Stephen Williams was the Liberal Democrat MP for Bristol West 2005-2015 and was Minister for Communities in the Coalition Government.