New Houses Are Small

You may have thought where you were looking at new build houses that they are smaller than older houses and too small to comfortably meet the needs of families.

RIBA Space Standards Report

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) have released a report looking at the size of new build homes and showing that they are indeed smaller than the recommended standards for houses. In their report “Space Standards for Homes - #HomeWise” they find:

• Outside London the average three bedroom house is missing 4 square metres, the size of a bathroom.
• Three bedroom houses in London are around 25 square metres bigger than the smallest in the rest of the country. That’s equal to a bedroom and living room.
• The London Plan adopts the Nationally Described Space Standards which raises the sizes of homes there

The full report can be found on the RIBA website.

Nationally Described Space Standard

In 2015 the government introduced national space standards which developers are supposed to exceed to make houses comfortable for people to live in. However they were not compulsory when they were introduced. They can be incorporated into the Local Plan, but the process for doing this is bureaucratic and onerous, meaning local authorities are reluctant to introduce them. Developers have also argued they are too onerous.

The London Plan has incorporated these standards into planning there showing it can be done.

The National Described Space Standards can be found on the .gov.uk website.

Waterbeach CLT

If we set up a CLT we would be able to look at things like the minimum space standards and decide to build homes which were fit for people to live in.