Should new homes be bigger?

The Government is consulting on whether to introduce minimum space standards for new properties.

Should new homes be subject to minimum space requirements? That’s one of the questions asked by a Department of Communities and Local Government consultation paper looking at what standards new homes are subject to.

In its report, the Government acknowledges that there is evidence to support the accusation that England has some of the smallest housing in all of Europe in terms of the number of bedrooms compared to its floor area. It also admits that the average living space within some English homes has fallen by at least a third since the 1920s.

No wonder that recent reports have highlighted many new homeowners are unhappy with how much storage space they get from their property.

What’s the solution? One option is what the Government is calling ‘space labelling’.

Space labelling

It’s a clunky name, but space labelling is exactly as it sounds. It’s the requirement for the overall internal floor area (and potentially individual room sizes as well) to be presented in a “consistent and visible manner at point of sale” to help buyers make a “more informed comparison”.

Of course, this doesn’t actually change how many undersized homes are being built. It just means that we will be a little more informed about just how small the property we are buying really is before we sign on the dotted line.

One way to actually make a difference to the size of homes being built would be to improve space standards, requiring all new homes to meet certain specifications. Some local authorities have their own minimum space standards already, so a national standard is not out of the question.

However, the Government has explicitly said it would rather not go down that route, preferring “market led, voluntary mechanisms” to help meet our needs.

It argues that intervention should not be “imposed from the centre” but rather local communities and neighbourhoods should be able to state what housing they want. It’s a lovely idea, but in practice it just tends to encourage NIMBYism. Yes, we need more homes as a nation, but I’d really rather they weren’t built in my village, thanks very much.

The cost of space standards

Of course, the inevitable result of space standards is that house prices will be pushed up. You’re buying a bigger property, so it’s costing the builder more in terms of land, materials and the rest.

By contrast, space labelling should not have much impact on prices at all. The fact that the information needed to put the labelling together is already there in Energy Performance Certificates or sales brochures means there shouldn’t be any extra cost to the builders.

And giving yet another boost to house prices should be the last thing the Government wants to do.

Addressing the housing shortage

The Government is being pulled in two directions on this. It’s evidently under pressure to improve the size of the new homes being built. But it’s also acutely aware of the serious housing shortage the nation faces.

That’s why the consultation includes the proposal to dump 90 of the current 100 housebuilding rules, to ensure that it’s easier for builders to get on with actually building new homes. As a result the 1,500 pages of guidance that builders currently have to follow will be cut down to less than 80.

Below are some of the rules which the Government wants to dump:

• homes in areas which don’t suffer water shortages will no longer be required to harvest rainwater;
• requirements for accessible flats to be built on floors which cannot be accessed by disabled people;
• demands for wind and solar energy sources that can’t physically fit onto the roofs of apartment buildings.

Between April and June this year construction started on 29,510 new homes. That’s up by a third year-on-year, but it’s still nowhere near enough. According to the National Housing Federation, unless significant action is taken, the average first-time buyer’s home will cost almost £250,000 by 2020. And rents will have rocketed by a further 46%.

Only time will tell whether dumping so many rules helps housebuilders improve both the number and quality of homes built. The trouble is, time is the one thing we don’t really have.

What do you think? Should there be minimum space standards for new properties? Is the Government right to dump so many housebuilding rules? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments box below.

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