Levitt Bernstein’s Julia Park is author of a new guide to the government’s extensively revised technical standards for new housing, published by the National Housing Federation.
Julia Park
With the government focused on deregulation to boost housing supply, launching a new book on housing standards may seem counterintuitive. But for a number of reasons, we feel it’s perfect timing and just what housing professionals need.
First, the world of housing standards has been turned upside down by the government’s Housing Standards Review. This has huge implications for what local planning authorities can and can’t ask for, and how performance in key “technical” areas will be assessed.
Although the process took five years, the new package of standards and regulations came into force just six months after publication. On 1 October 2015, we were all expected to switch over. Existing technical standards fell away on the same date – the Code for Sustainable Homes among them.
It’s not surprising, therefore, that there is a great deal of confusion about what the new measures mean in practice, how the new “optional requirements” for accessibility and water efficiency are invoked and assessed, and where we are with energy standards now that the “zero carbon” target has been called off
The handbook explains all of this and more – in the sort of language we wish government would use. But that’s by no means the whole story. The government review had a narrow remit and there are many more things that need to be considered.
In commissioning the book, the National Housing Federation wanted to keep quality on the agenda by promoting good practice in a climate where all the talk is about numbers. Its brief was to create a definitive resource, or at least to provide a complete overview of what good housing means and signpost to other documents.
We agreed that bringing everything together would be enormously helpful provided that the status of the various regulations, standards and additional good practice recommendations was crystal clear. We also agreed that it needed to be simply structured, highly readable and supported by diagrams and annotated sketches. A book you can read from cover to cover or consult for specific information; and we hope that’s what we’ve got.
What does it cover?
There are three main elements to the handbook: an introduction that explains the objectives and the context; a section on the standards and the rationale behind them; and an overview of managing the design process.
"If housing supply was keeping pace with demand, there would be much less need for standards – developers would need to compete on the quality of the product, not just the price. But that’s not where we are."
The section on standards is the largest and most important. It covers “Placemaking and the public realm”, “Communal spaces” and “The home”.
The standards themselves are colour-coded to distinguish between these three categories:
- nationally defined and universally applied (baseline regulations);
- nationally defined and locally applied (optional higher regulations and the nationally defined space standard that local authorities may apply subject to demonstrating need and viability);
- additional good practice standards (bespoke to the handbook but informed by existing standards).
Readers are also reminded that other local planning policy standards (design issues such as density, mix, open space, car parking cycle storage etc) need to be added for each project to complete the set.
Appendices provide vital extra detail in complex areas. Among others, we look at “energy” (including the pros and cons of combined heat and power and low or zero carbon technologies); “metrics and measurement” (how to measure gross internal floor area for the purposes of the new space standard and calculate density); and “CDM” (with a focus on the client’s duties).
The glossary is a resource in itself, as is the index of further reading.
As you would expect given the nature of the client, the focus is on affordable housing and the handbook is aimed at housing associations and local authorities that are starting to develop again.
Taking a long-term view, designing in a way that mitigates management and service charges is a recurring theme. But most developments are mixed tenure and all projects are team efforts so the handbook has a much wider audience – designers, developers, builders, academics, students and anyone else with an interest in housing.
What’s the Levitt Bernstein view on the new housing standards?
Like most people we see baseline standards (regulations) as necessary safeguards against unacceptable outcomes. If housing supply was keeping pace with demand, there would be much less need for standards – developers would need to compete on the quality of the product, not just the price. But that’s not where we are.
Beyond that, extra (or higher) standards are helpful in promoting good practice and paving the way for future regulation. We feel very strongly about housing quality and the added value of good design.
Good teamwork is vital here. From the start, we need a common understanding of what’s realistic, and a shared will to deliver the best possible outcome under the circumstances. We’d like to see contractors involved much earlier in the process (pre-planning) so that we design what we build and build what we design.
We also know that a good, clear project-specific brief saves everyone time and means that if changes are needed they can be tracked by making dated amendments. Clients have a right to change their mind and a duty to pay more when this means significant redesign. With clear aims, cost estimates are more likely to be accurate and there is more accountability if they aren’t.
So we see the handbook as a tool rather than a book of rules. It provides a framework for an early discussion about the kind of housing and the level of quality that’s right for the project. It should make it more likely that the end result lives up to the initial aspirations.
We, and our clients, may not feel able to meet all of the standards in the handbook (and it is a pretty long list) but we will at least have considered the consequences of not doing so.
Julia Park is an architect and head of housing research at Levitt Bernstein. The handbook is priced £59.95 and is available here
