Morning Star.png Tiny 'Rabbit Hutch' New Builds Are Not Fit For Purpose Lamiat Sabin, The Morning Star, London, 3 December 2015 Over half of newly-built homes are not big enough to accommodate the basic daily activities of most households, architects warned yesterday. "Tiny rabbit-hutch new-builds" are not fit for purpose and are depriving thousands of families of the space needed to live comfortably, according to the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba). This includes the room to accommodate ageing and ill parents, newborns, overnight visitors or even to store necessities such as vacuum cleaners. Small box rooms also mean children's belongings are squeezed into spaces that can just about fit a bed. Yorkshire homes are the smallest in England with the average new three-bedroom home being 25 square metres smaller than those in London - the equivalent of a double bedroom and living room combined. On average, buyers and renters of a new three-bedroom home outside London are losing out on 4 square metres - around the size of a family bathroom - according to Riba research. This is compared to the recommended home size of 93 square metres. The architects are calling for an urgent amendment in legislation currently passing through Parliament to end to the building of substandard homes. They say all new homes should be subjected to minimum sizes as the Housing and Planning Bill does not require developers to adhere to the rules when converting a commercial space to residential. Riba president Jane Duncan said: "Tiny rabbit-hutch new-builds should be a thing of the past. "But sadly our research shows that for many people, a new home means living somewhere that's been built well below the minimum space standard needed for a comfortable home. "The government must take action to ensure a fairer minimum space standard is applied to all new homes across the country." Eileen Short of Defend Council Housing told the Star that more local authority homes should be built to ease overcrowding in the social sector. She said: "We need investment in first-class council housing now - the kind of true 'starter homes' that would give a whole generation a chance in life. "That's what we mean by homes for need, not landlords' greed." From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-65ff-Tiny-rabbit-hutch-new-builds-are-n ot-fit-for-purpose#.Vl_Be7iGSko -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
