FANTASTIC NEWS! From April 2021, homes created through Permitted Development Rights will have to meet minimum space standards.

This means an end to offices being split up into tiny rabbit hutch flats neither fit nor safe for human beings to live in!

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1243/made

I could cry with joy! Space standards in #PermittedDevelopmentRights conversions means no more of this!

There are huge risks in what happens before these new rules come in next April of course - especially now, with so much office and retail space lying vacant.

And there's more to good-quality housing than space standards & windows - the 2 concessions government has made so far.

Plus tens of thousands of under-sized homes have been created through PDR conversions since the rules were weakened in 2013. We'll now need to go back and refurb these buildings to make them decent, safe and fit for the future. A huge undertaking.

But make no mistake, this is wonderful, wonderful news. This is the start of the government and the development industry learning the lessons of this awful pandemic.

Decent housing is not a luxury. It is an essential part of our civic immune system.

Decent-sized homes mean people can self-isolate when they are sick. They mean children have somewhere to do school work and to play when they're stuck indoors during a pandemic. They mean adults have somewhere to work from home if they can, and to relax.

Decent-sized homes preserve people's mental & physical health, productivity & enjoyment of life. They benefit the economy & all of us. None of this should ever have been bargained away under the banner of "something is better than nothing", but we are now, finally, moving forward

@DrBenClifford deserves enormous credit for this - thank you!