Mandatory regulations set to be introduced to put an end to rabbit hutch homes

The British Government is planning to introduce mandatory design regulations for new homes, both for sale and to rent, with minimum sizes for rooms and storage spaces, the Prime Minister has announced. Developers will also be banned from filling show homes with ‘deceptively small furniture’, a trick used to make rooms look bigger, Theresa May told the Chartered Institute of Housing’s national conference. ‘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,’ she said. At present, not all local authorities insist on the ‘nationally described space standard’, which sets out the minimum sizes for single and double bedrooms in new homes and the minimum floor-to-ceiling height, and call for built-in storage, as well as areas for equipment such as a hot water cylinder, boiler or heat exchanger, being used as a condition of granting planning permission. May said at the conference that the ad-hoc application of these guidelines is not acceptable. She outlined that a lot is being done to help more homes to be built, including the Government’s £5.5 billion housing infrastructure fund and local authorities have been given greater freedom to grant planning permission on brownfield sites.