RIBA welcomes Government review of housing space standards

The Government announced a review of the national space standard for housing yesterday (25 April 2016). During the debate on the Housing and Planning Bill, recognition was given to the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) long campaign on this issue.

Speaking today RIBA President Jane Duncan said:

“We are very pleased that the Government will be reviewing how the national space standard, introduced last October, is operating in practice.

As our December 2015 report ‘HomeWise: Space Standards for Homes’ stressed, the current standard is far too complicated and onerous for Local Authorities to implement.  This means that too many new homes are sub-standard and more than half of the new homes being built today are simply not big enough to meet the needs of the people who buy them.

We believe it would be simpler and fairer to embed the national minimum space standard within Building Regulations, therefore welcome the proposal to include the Building Regulations Advisory Committee in the review.”

Ends

Notes to editors

We are very pleased that the Government will be reviewing how the national space standard, introduced last October, is operating in practice.

1. For further press information contact pressoffice@riba.org 020 7580 5533

2. RIBA’s #HomeWise – Space Standards for Homes can be downloaded here: https://www.architecture.com/RIBA/Campaigns%20and%20issues/Assets/Files/HomewiseReport2015.pdf

Posted on Tuesday 26th April 2016