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On the one hand we've all seen stories and headlines in the media suggesting that the Government is keen to initiate a new phase of self-building for the UK's wannabe homeowners, yet how does that equate with figures just released by the Federation of Master Builders?

The FMB reported that the proportion of firms with higher workloads fell from just 31% in the third quarter of 2010 to just 22% in the final quarter, whilst those indicating declining workloads increased to 38%.

When you couple that with a report by the Home Builders Federation that showed the start of January revealing a sharp fall in housing approvals.

Planning permissions to build new homes have dropped alarmingly from 2007 figures and are presently at their lowest levels in the past 5 years.

With construction workloads falling successively for the past 12 yearly quarters in a row, the consensus is that aside from the problems of a shortage of suitable plots for development, individuals interested in self builds are finding themselves further hampered by a lack of mortgage availability.