We live off grid in a floating home on the River Soar. We want to inspire others

A Nottinghamshire couple is hoping to become completely self-sufficient by growing food, collecting water and generating their own electricity. Steve Scott spent several years living at the Red Hill Marina near Ratcliffe on Soar and this is where he met his now wife, Anna.

The pair met shortly after the first Covid lockdown and over time they wanted to move in together. Anna, who is a professional skipper, had her own boat but this was too small for the pair, and so they decided to build a floating home for themselves out of a 45-foot shipping container with a 14-tonne concrete hull at the base.

The home cost £17,000 to build and was featured in an episode of George Clarke's Amazing Spaces in 2022. Presenter George described the idea as "ingenious" and over the show viewers were impressed at how they got the concrete and steel home to float.

However, now their home is complete the couple are busy working on the next stages of their plan to be completely self-sufficient. Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live, Steve said: "It's living off the grid, that's all this is to be honest. I really believe that what we are doing is important."

Steve, who grew up in Bestwood, purchased a plot of land around 320m away from the marina they previously lived at on the outskirts of Ratcliffe on Soar, but on the opposite side which falls under Leicestershire. The couple are putting their "full commitment" into their dream.

Steve added: "I believe that if I can do this and make this work, it's a wonderful way for other people to say 'we can do this'." At the moment the pair are using solar panels for their electricity, and whilst they do have a backup generator, even this is powered by batteries they have recycled.

They will be collecting their rainwater which will be filtered and stored for their water supply, and Steve hopes eventually they will be able to generate their own energy for cooking from this. He explained: "My dream eventually is to be able to convert that to oxygen and hydrogen and use the hydrogen for my gas to heat up my hot water and do gas cooking. So I will be able to have natural gas and any waste product from that would just give me water back."

Speaking about their ambitions, Steve stated: "It's not a process that you suddenly wake up one morning and decide you're going to do. We were living on the river and you really do see nature."

He explained it was only when he was on the river that he first saw a kingfisher. "It was an amazing sight to see. I grew up on a council estate in Bestwood in Nottingham. To come from just a normal council estate, and a bit of a rough one I must admit, I found myself welding going around the country, and that was not one of the most earth-friendly jobs to do.

"Then when I met Anna, and she is a sailor, she opened my eyes to different things." He described her as already being environmentally conscious and thoughtful when it came to things like recycling, and so the more they looked at being self-sufficient, the more they thought "we can do this."

The couple hope that eventually, their home will be something people will want to visit and learn more about their way of life, and encourage people to know there are other ways to live. Steve explained: "The younger generation can see this and walk around and see the growth and encourage kids to grow up knowing there are other ways and not feeling you have to get an expensive mortgage and all your food from the supermarket.

"The saddest part is after the war everyone was growing their own food, it wasn't until supermarkets came along and everything else that that stopped. There used to be hundreds and hundreds of acres of land where people had allotments and that's been reduced because people don't want it anymore, but we should be going back to that and I've just gone over the top on the way we are doing it."

He added: "We need energy, we need water, so I've put myself in a situation to prove it can be done." The couple hope they can aspire others to live more sustainably and are currently in the process of submitting plans to the North West Leicestershire Council to progress on their dream.