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Just weeks after the Department of Energy and Climate Change introduced its flagship "Green Deal" policy aimed at retrofitting 14m UK homes to make them more energy-efficient the DCLG has announced a review of all building regulations, including energy, water and the space available in new homes. It is well known that we already have the lowest space standards in Europe by an average on 8%, as exposed in the RIBA’s excellent “Case for Space” report. This seems to invite a race to the bottom as the government invites volume house builders to “self-regulate”. Self-regulation was what produced the Victorian slums, as only a superficial knowledge of urban history would inform our law-givers.
What government also appears not to understand is the time scale of the building process requires predictability and forward planning. Their constant tinkering is in danger of reducing the level of activity, which is already at its lowest since the 1920s.
Yours Kate Macintosh

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