Do we need national design standards for housing?

Yes

The RIBA has warmly welcomed the mayor’s London Housing Design Guide, a vital step towards improving London’s housing.

In particular, the improved space standards for public housing are crucial. New homes have been shrinking since Margaret Thatcher’s abolition of the Parker Morris standards in the 1980s. It is ironic – but welcome – that it has taken a Conservative mayor working 30 years later to push space standards back on to the agenda.

But while affordable homes in London will benefit, consumers in the private sector across the country will remain short-changed by developers focused on the shortest route to property sales. Standards should apply universally, and set a minimum level of design quality necessary for households to live comfortably, irrespective of location or tenure type.

No doubt the argument will be made that with higher standards come fewer homes, since developers cannot stretch to meet these demands. This is no longer acceptable; the industry should use this challenge to drive design innovation and to develop efficient construction and financing solutions.

Genuinely considering the desires and needs of consumers should provoke original solutions, rather than the tired examples sold through clever marketing and a paucity of choice. The Homes & Communities Agency and the mayor have made the first positive steps. The RIBA intends to take this challenge equally seriously, and we’ll be joining them in thinking about ways to deliver better homes without a bigger price tag.

No

While there may be a case for design standards to be applied to publicly funded housing, there is not for private for-sale homes.

Social housing – into which RSLs or local authorities place occupants – is intended to meet identified requirements that mean standards are appropriate. The housing also needs to be able to cater for, on average, higher levels of occupancy and its design must consider factors including low-cost maintenance and running costs to ensure that rents are kept down.

And as the government or the local authority is paying, it has the right to specify whatever it wishes.

Private housing is paid for by individuals who have worked out how much they can afford and decided what attributes and location matter most to them.

Housebuilders build a range of products for different budgets and choices. Implementing design standards would increase costs and make housing unaffordable for even more people. Space standards, for example, would mean a bigger footprint, making homes, inevitably, more expensive.

Customer satisfaction levels for housebuilders are at record highs, demonstrating they are producing what their customers want. What they don’t want are unaffordable, prescription homes that are not sensitive to their preferences.

The industry has to compete in the free market yet is already governed by extraordinary levels of bureaucracy and central and local government-imposed costs. It does not need any more.

What do you think?