No space like home? Small domestic properties, compensatory urbanism and housing futures in English cities
Lead Research Organisation:
King's College London
Department Name: Geography
Abstract
Micro-apartments and studios are now widespread in English cities, often advertised as offering convenient city centre living for young professionals and post-students. They have also been heralded in some quarters as an energy-efficient solution to the problem of increasing housing demand, maximising the number of units on a given site.
However, some of these smaller homes are below the government's (2015) Nationally Described Space Standard of 37m2 for a single occupancy, one-bedroom dwelling. While the existence of these standards suggests these homes should theoretically not exist, they have been developed through Permitted Development Rights which allow developers to sidestep formal planning permission, as well as being permitted in situations where planning authorities feel they respond appropriately to local housing need.
Yet the number and location of these small homes is not well understood; nor is there understanding of the impact of living in a 'sub-standard' sized home. While well-designed small homes may fulfil some residents' housing needs, there remain concerns that very small homes may be inadequate, negatively impacting on relationships and preventing the accumulation of personal possessions important to 'home-making'.
This given, we have completed preliminary 'proof-of-concept' work in London using Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data, matching this to other data (e.g. Price Paid Data, Local Planning Databases), showing that sub-NDSS homes account for more than one-in-ten of London's new homes, and that their number has actually increased over the last decade.
This project will extend the breadth of our pilot research, exploring the wider geographies of very small homes in English cities whilst increasing depth of understanding by assessing whether small homes ever constitute adequate homes. It will do this through linked Work Packages on the production, regulation and consumption of small homes, combining the expertise of researchers from geography, computer science and legal studies who have an established track-record of publication in housing studies.
WP1 will construct a national database of c.25m properties in England using EPCs as a source of floorspace data, combining this with Price Paid Data, Zoopla, local planning, and housing data. Subsequent spatial analysis of this data in three LPAs will identify the location of sub-37m2 homes at neighbourhood level, gauging their relative affordability, and assessing overall residential amenity.
WP2 will explore how the homes identified in WP1 have been permitted by the planning system. Exploring questions of legality, and the often-indistinct boundaries between planning law, norms and standards, interviews with key stakeholders, combined with documentary analysis and Planning Appeal documents, will examine how ideas of housing adequacy are invoked in given circumstances, facilitating the emergence of very small homes in particular neighbourhoods.
WP3 will recruit residents in small homes in three LPAs to explore how these properties are lived in, and adapted, considering residents' housing trajectories and broader aspirations. It will address liveability through innovative visual and qualitative methods that will allow us to explore the unspoken dimensions of physical space that are crucial to homemaking.
Combined, these WPs will transform understanding of the national housing crisis and housing futures by identifying the causes and consequences of the production of small homes in England, addressing policy-relevant questions concerning the adequacy and acceptability of this form of housing while contributing to international debates on urban policy, gentrification and the financialisation of housing.
However, some of these smaller homes are below the government's (2015) Nationally Described Space Standard of 37m2 for a single occupancy, one-bedroom dwelling. While the existence of these standards suggests these homes should theoretically not exist, they have been developed through Permitted Development Rights which allow developers to sidestep formal planning permission, as well as being permitted in situations where planning authorities feel they respond appropriately to local housing need.
Yet the number and location of these small homes is not well understood; nor is there understanding of the impact of living in a 'sub-standard' sized home. While well-designed small homes may fulfil some residents' housing needs, there remain concerns that very small homes may be inadequate, negatively impacting on relationships and preventing the accumulation of personal possessions important to 'home-making'.
This given, we have completed preliminary 'proof-of-concept' work in London using Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data, matching this to other data (e.g. Price Paid Data, Local Planning Databases), showing that sub-NDSS homes account for more than one-in-ten of London's new homes, and that their number has actually increased over the last decade.
This project will extend the breadth of our pilot research, exploring the wider geographies of very small homes in English cities whilst increasing depth of understanding by assessing whether small homes ever constitute adequate homes. It will do this through linked Work Packages on the production, regulation and consumption of small homes, combining the expertise of researchers from geography, computer science and legal studies who have an established track-record of publication in housing studies.
WP1 will construct a national database of c.25m properties in England using EPCs as a source of floorspace data, combining this with Price Paid Data, Zoopla, local planning, and housing data. Subsequent spatial analysis of this data in three LPAs will identify the location of sub-37m2 homes at neighbourhood level, gauging their relative affordability, and assessing overall residential amenity.
WP2 will explore how the homes identified in WP1 have been permitted by the planning system. Exploring questions of legality, and the often-indistinct boundaries between planning law, norms and standards, interviews with key stakeholders, combined with documentary analysis and Planning Appeal documents, will examine how ideas of housing adequacy are invoked in given circumstances, facilitating the emergence of very small homes in particular neighbourhoods.
WP3 will recruit residents in small homes in three LPAs to explore how these properties are lived in, and adapted, considering residents' housing trajectories and broader aspirations. It will address liveability through innovative visual and qualitative methods that will allow us to explore the unspoken dimensions of physical space that are crucial to homemaking.
Combined, these WPs will transform understanding of the national housing crisis and housing futures by identifying the causes and consequences of the production of small homes in England, addressing policy-relevant questions concerning the adequacy and acceptability of this form of housing while contributing to international debates on urban policy, gentrification and the financialisation of housing.
