Government plans will make it easier and cheaper to build homes to high standard.
Currently house builders face a myriad of different standards to implement each time they build new homes in an area.
Publishing the government’s response to its housing standards review, the minister said the move would remove this confusion from the system.
Today’s measure will reduce 100 standards to fewer than 10; bringing down the numbers of remaining pages of guidance from 1000 to fewer than 100.
Communities Minister Stephen Williams said: “The current system of housing standards is complicated and confusing and is ripe for reform.
“That’s why we’re planning to make the whole system easier to understand and follow, consolidating housing standards so that all the requirements are in 1 place.
“This will enable councils and developers to better work together to build high-quality, sustainable and secure homes in communities across the country.”
Housing standards that will be abolished include:
- requirements for rainwater harvesting in places that don’t suffer from water shortages;
- a requirement for more than 1 phone line to be installed – regardless of need;
- a requirement for compost bins and secure sheds in gardens.
The measures also include scrapping rules that require house builders to get the same work checked by a range of different organisations.
