New Permitted Development Rights Homes Must Meet Space Standards

 Homes created through permitted development rights (PDR) in England must meet the nationally described space standard, the government has announced. Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has confirmed that homes created via PDR, which does not require planning permission, must meet the standard of 37m2 of floorspace for a one-bed flat with a shower room. The government said this would put an end to developers delivering homes that are too small to live in. The new measure comes amid growing pressure from Conservative backbench MPs. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/new-permitted-development-rights-homes-must-meet-space-standards-government-says--68070?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

New Changes To HMO Licensing

The government is extending mandatory licensing for houses in multiple occupation so 870,000 additional private tenants have extra protection from rogue landlords, including through minimum space standards. It is also consulting on further changes to improve the level of protection they get. The announcement last week that the government is consulting on a swathe of changes to mandatory licensing is worth getting excited about. Not only do the proposals stand to give almost a million more tenants the protection of living in a licensed property, they are also likely to enhance the quality of that protection with new space standards and a raft of other proposals. Read more on the Shelter blog.

When It Comes To New Housing, We Need Quality As Well As Quantity

A basic lack of space in new homes is leading to confusion over the relationship between underoccupation and undersizing.  A housing crisis builds: demand goes up and supply goes down, while a groundswell of liberal voices calls for the development of more than 200,000 new homes a year.  Above all, they say, we just need to build more homes.  But if there's one thing we don't need, it's 200,000 more of the kind of homes we've been building up to now.  A new study carried out by academics at the University of Cambridge analysed 16,000 properties across England and compared them to the basic space standards set out in the London Housing Design Guide. Those working in housing and planning might be able to guess what came next: more than half (55%) fell short on floor space alone and a fifth (21%) were considered too small for comfortable habitation for the size of the household. Read more on the Guardian website.

Study Finds Premise behind Bedroom Tax Is ‘Fundamentally Flawed’

A new study shows that more than half of English homes - which are the smallest by floor area in Europe - fall short of modern space standards, calling into question the premise behind the so-called ‘bedroom tax’.  The study also found that households receiving housing benefit were more likely to be undersized, with 'spare' bedrooms required for other uses, suggesting that the policy of withdrawing benefits from these households is misguided. The research, from the University of Cambridge, analysed 16,000 dwellings in England and compared them to the London Housing Design Guide internal space standard. It found that 55% of dwellings fall short of the standards based on floor space alone, and 21% fall short when the number of current occupants is taken into account. Read more on the Cambridge University website.