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Hundreds of tiny studio flats, many smaller than a budget hotel room, are to be squeezed into an eleven-storey block in north London as its developer takes advantage of the government’s relaxation of planning regulations.
Plans for Barnet House, used by the London borough of Barnet’s housing department, reveal that 96% of the 254 proposed flats will be smaller than the national minimum space standards of 37 sq metres (44 sq yards) for a single person.
The tiniest homes will be 16 sq metres – 40% smaller than the average Travelodge room. [...] In the surrounding area, studio flats of a similar scale to most planned at Barnet House sell for around £180,000 and rent for around £800 per month.
[...] Office buildings in Croydon have also been converted into studios with floor areas of as little as 15 sq metres under the Tory deregulation. Housing experts have attacked the relaxation of planning regulations as a “race to the bottom”, but ministers insist the measure is helping to deliver vital new housing, and point out that more than 10,000 new homes were created from office buildings last year.
Under the “permitted development” system, developers who convert offices into homes do not have to meet minimum floor area standards, considered by researchers to be important for health, educational attainment and family relationships. Neither do they have to include any affordable housing.
Source: The Guardian
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @03:21AM
London has now for decades been the poster child for NIMBY - and a good dose of BANANAS as well. The property market has been insane, because of a well-studied, well-documented simple lack of supply.
A large part of the lack of supply came down to planning restrictions. As far back in the 1980s it was a joke. Those who remember Yes, Minister, may recall in the very first episode how Jim was supposed to have made political hay in the opposition by declaring that building a bungalow in the 20th century took longer than building a cathedral in the 13th.
So what did they do? For the last three decades and counting every government promised with serious frowns that they were absolutely, definitely going to Do Something About It... followed by total paralysis.
Now the tories (and some allies further down the chain of government) scratched together some gumption and actually Did Something About It, and rather than recognise the reality that these flats are sorely needed, and will surely help add some supply back to the market, perhaps even reducing other prices for the larger end of the market (especially on the periphery of Greater London), the great and good are wringing their hands about flats with floor space of 16 square meters - flats which are evidently aimed at the single worker who's probably trying to save up for something bigger and better, and will be delighted to spend two fewer hours per working day commuting to some miserable dungeon - and have the time back in their lives.
At least, let's give this a fair trial before we start assembling lampposts, rope and landlords, shall we?