Outgoing Primes Minister Theresa May has called for mandatary space standards in new homes, stoking criticism for her failure to halt Permitted Development Rights which sparked the rise of micro homes.
Currently, some local authorities make Nationally Described Space Standards a condition of granting planning permission, however many do not – and even where standards are applied, they are not mandatory. The Prime Minister said that this has resulted in an uneven playing field, with different rules in different parts of the country, leaving “tenants and buyers facing a postcode lottery.”
May said that mandatory regulations would be universal, and provide a clear, national standards – potentially leading to increased housebuilding.
The Prime Minister said, “I cannot defend a system in which owners and tenants are forced to accept tiny homes with inadequate storage… Where developers feel the need to fill show homes with deceptively small furniture… And where the lack of universal standards encourages a race to the bottom.”
However, industry bodies have said that the prime minister must take responsibility for the “tiny homes” that she facilitated by ignoring industry and campaigner advice for better housing standards and more appropriate policy.
The National Federation of Builders said that time after time, the Prime Minister and her housing ministers were told that their policy decisions were actively encouraging the construction of smaller homes, but they ignored every warning.
Richard Beresford, chief executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: “The issue of tiny homes has been raised over and over again. The government kicked it into the long grass and it is disingenuous of the prime minister to make it a priority, now that she is stepping down.”
Office to residential development under permitted development rules was a major contributing factor.
The decision to stop publishing the number of one, two, three and four bedroom homes also gave councils fewer tools to match housing need with supply.
Investment in and backing of the brilliant, albeit transitional, housing provider Pocket Living highlighted a lack of market understanding.
Local authorities who did not mandate space standards within local planning must take their share of the blame, but the government knew this was happening and did not take the right steps to solve it.
Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning policy at the House Builders Association, said: “I’ve lost track of the number of times I raised this issue with the government and councils. We can ensure larger homes are built through tools such as space standards, but councils must also know the types and size of homes that are being built. That requires the Government to begin publishing those statistics once again.”
The Prime Minister urged new design standards to ensure high-quality homes, more social housing, and further tenant rights while addressing the Chartered Institute of Housing conference. She is also set out the next steps on the Social Housing Green Paper agenda, with an action plan expected in September.
Her intervention comes as figures indicate that, by autumn, a million homes will have been added in under five years.
In Manchester, the number of extra homes being created is up 12%, in Nottingham by 43%, and in Birmingham by 80%. The number of affordable housing starts has also increased to nearly 54,000 this year.
“The housing shortage in this country began not because of a blip lasting one year or one Parliament, but because not enough homes were built over many decades,” May said. “The very worst thing we could do would be to make the same mistake again.”
Last year, more additional homes were delivered than in all but one of the previous 31 years. But the Prime Minister said that the quality of housing must not be compromised by the drive to build more homes.
She also confirmed plans to end so-called “no-fault” evictions, with a consultation to be published shortly.
The Prime Minister announced the timetable for further action on the Social Housing Green Paper agenda, calling for more high-quality social housing, better tenant rights, and demanding landlords demonstrate how they have acted on concerns raised.
Whilst admitting there is more to do, the Prime Minister said that reforms have made it easier to get homes built in the right places – including via the £5.5 billion housing infrastructure fund, and by giving local authorities greater freedom to use brownfield sites.
