26.06.19
Prime Minister speaks out against construction of 'tiny homes'
The Prime Minister has called for new design standards to ensure high-quality homes and further rights for tenants.
Theresa May will use her address to the Chartered Institute of Housing conference today to highlight “tiny homes with inadequate storage.”
The PM is also expected to set out next steps on the government’s Social Housing Green Paper agenda.
Her intervention comes as figures indicate that by autumn a million homes will have been built in under five years.
Welcoming these figures, the Prime Minister said:
“This is a government with a bold vision for housing and a willingness to act on it.
“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.
“The very worst thing we could do would be to make the same mistake again.”
She will also call for new regulations to mandate developers to build higher-quality housing.
Currently, some local authorities make Nationally Described Space Standards a condition of granting planning permission.
But many do not, and even where standards are applied, they are not mandatory.
The Prime Minister will say 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.”
“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 will also confirm plans to end so-called “no-fault” evictions, with a consultation to be published shortly.